Bl'BLE    CLASSES 


he  Licruor  Frok 


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UC-NRLF 


ELECTIVE      STUDY      COURSES 
FOR     ADULT     BIBLE     CLASSES 


The  Liquor  Problem 


BY 

NORMAN  E.  RICHARDSON 


In  Collaboration  with 

The  Scientific  Temperance  Federation,  Cora  Frances  Stod- 
dard,  Secretary ;  The  Temperance  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  Deets  Picket,  Research  Secretary; 
Harry  S.  Warner,  Catherine  Lent  Stevenson,  William 
E.  Johnson,  Arthur  J.  Davis,  and  others. 


Approved  by  the  Committee  on  Curriculum  of  the  Board 
of  Sunday   Schools  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal    Church 


HEl^RY  H.  MEYER 


THE  METHODIST  BOOK  CONCERN 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
NORMAN  E.  RICHARDSON 


The  Bible  text  printed  with  each  lesson  under  the  heading,  The  Scripture 
Reference,  is  taken  from  the  American  Standard  Edition  of  the  Revised  Bible, 
copyright,  1901,  by  Thomas  Nelson  &  Sons,  and  is  used  by  permission. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION v 

AUTHOR'S  PREFACE vii 

LESSON        I.  THE  MAGNITUDE  AND  SERIOUSNESS  OF  THE 

LIQUOR  PROBLEM i 

LESSON       II.  THE  PHYSICAL  EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOI 12 

LESSON     III.  THE    EFFECT   OF    ALCOHOL    UPON    RACE 

WELFARE 23 

LESSON      IV.  CRIME  AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  .........     32 

LESSON        V.  THE  SALOON  AND  THE  SOCIAL  EVIL 43 

LESSON      VI.  THE    LIQUOR    TRAFFIC    AND    THE    PUBLIC 

SCHOOL 53 

LESSON    VII.  ALCOHOL  THE  ENEMY  OF  LABOR 63 

LESSON  VIII.  THE   POLITICAL   ACTIVITY  OF   THE   LIQUOR 

INTERESTS 73 

LESSON     IX.  How  DRINK  INJURES  THE  HOME 84 

LESSON      X.  THE  USE  OF  ALCOHOL  A  SOURCE  OF  POVERTY    95 
LESSON     XL  THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  SALOON 105 

LESSON  XII.  SOME   PAST    FAILURES   AND   THE    LESSONS 

THEY  TEACH 115 

LESSON  XIII.  AN  AMENDMENT  TO  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES 125 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:  SOME   OF  THE  BEST  BOOKS 
ON  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 136 

INDEX 138 


INTRODUCTION 

With  the  introduction  of  specialized  courses  of  study  and 
instruction  into  the  Sunday  schools,  a  new  day  has  dawned 
for  the  churches  of  Christ  in  America.  And  the  rising  sun 
of  that  new  day  is  already  high  above  the  horizon,  when 
adult  Bible  classes  are  free  to  choose  for  themselves  from 
a  larger  number  of  study  courses  planned  and  written  with 
the  interests  and  needs  of  adult  groups  especially  in  mind. 
This  happily  is  the  situation  at  present,  with  the  number 
and  variety  of  courses  rapidly  increasing. 

Among  the  special  interests  that  appeal  most  strongly  to 
adult  groups  organized  for  study  and  service  under  the 
banners  of  the  Christian  church  and  its  modern  Sunday 
school  are  the  burning  social  and  community  problems  around 
which  center  the  political  and  reform  movements  of  our 
time.  And  among  these  the  liquor  problem,  in  its  social  and 
religious  bearings,  must  continue  to  hold  a  central  place  until 
that  glad  day,  now  rapidly  approaching,  when  the  manu- 
facture and.  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  shall  forever  be 
forbidden  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  fair 
republic. 

The  course  of  study  presented  in  this  little  textbook  on 
The  Liquor  Problem  is  based  on  the  principles  set  forth  in 
the  Bible  passages  presented  in  connection  with  the  separate 
lessons.  In  its  subject  matter  it  presents  the  latest  and 
most  dependable  conclusions  of  modern  scientific  inquiry 
concerning  the  physical  and  social  evil  effects  of  alcoholic 
beverages.  The  author,  Norman  E.  Richardson,  occupies  the 
chair  of  religious  pedagogy  in  the  Boston  University  School 
of  Theology,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Sunday 
Schools  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  Chairman 
of  its  Committee  on  Curriculum.  In  the  preparation  of  these 
studies  in  outline  by  the  Committee  on  Curriculum  Professor 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

Richardson  had  an  influential  part,  and  in  preparing  the 
lessons  on  the  basis  of  this  Committee  outline  he  has  availed 
himself  of  the  resources  of  information  and  of  the  coopera- 
tion generously  afforded  by  the  leading  temperance  and  social- 
welfare  organizations  of  the  country.  Specific  credit  for  this 
cooperation  is  given  in  the  author's  preface. 

We  commend  this  course  on  The  Liquor  Problem  to 
organized  adult  Bible  classes  in  the  firm  confidence  that  its 
study  cannot  fail  to  further  an  intelligent  Christian  attitude 
toward  this  gigantic  evil  of  American  community  and  national 
life.  The  course  is  arranged  in  a  series  of  thirteen  lessons 
intended  to  cover  a  period  of  three  months  of  class  study, 
but  it  may  profitably  be  expanded  to  cover  either  four  or 
six  months  at  the  option  of  the  class.  Similar  courses  on 
International  Peace,  Poverty  and  Wealth,  and  other  kindred 
subjects  are  in  process  of  preparation. 

HENRY    H.    MEYER, 
Editor  Sunday  School  Publications. 

Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
November,   1914. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

In  the  preparation  of  this  course  of  lessons,  the  author  has 
received  valuable  assistance  from  the  Scientific  Temperance 
Federation,  Mrs.  Emma  L.  Transeau  having  read  the  manu- 
script, carefully  verifying  all  of  the  facts,  and  Miss  Cora 
Frances  Stoddard  having  prepared  the  material  for  the 
lessons  on  'The  Effect  of  Alcohol  on  Race  Welfare."  The 
Temperance  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
through  its  research  secretary,  Mr.  Deets  Pickett,  contributed 
many  helpful  suggestions.  Mr.  Harry  S.  Warner,  whose 
book  on  ''Social  Welfare  and  the  Liquor  Problem"  is  a 
standard  work  on  that  subject,  contributed  the  lesson  on 
"The  Social  Phase  of  the  Saloon,"  and  Mr.  Ernest  H. 
Cherrington,  editor  of  the  "American  Issue,"  the  one  on 
"An  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 
Dr.  W.  Stewart  Whittemore,  M.D.,  Mrs.  Katherine  Lent 
Stevenson,  and  Mr.  William  E.  Johnson,  were  freely  con- 
sulted in  connection  with  the  preparation  of  the  lessons  on 
"The  Physical  Effects  of  Alcohol,"  "Crime  and  the  Liquor 
Traffic,"" and  "How  Drink  Injures  the  Home."  Many  of  the 
practical  suggestions,  pointing  out  "What  Our  Class  Can  Do," 
were  offered  by  Mr.  Arthur  J.  Davis,  State  Superintendent 
of  the  Massachusetts  Anti-Saloon  League.  Grateful  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Raymond  F.  Piper  is  also 
expressed. 

The  first  suggestion  that  such  lessons  be  prepared  and 
introduced  into  the  Sunday  schools  came  from  Mr.  Philip 
A.  Goold,  then  a  student  in  Boston  University.  The  first 
lesson  was  written  by  him. 

If  the  adult  Bible  classes  in  large  numbers  spend  three 
consecutive  months  in  studying  the  facts  concerning  this 
gigantic  evil  and  do  their  part  in  hastening  the  adequate 
ratification  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, the  prayer  of  the  author  will  have  been  answered. 
Let  us  put  an  anti-liquor  party  in  power ! 

NORMAN  E.  RICHARDSON. 

Boston  University,  August  17,  1914. 


LESSON    I 

THE     MAGNITUDE     AND     SERIOUS- 
NESS OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

O  Jehovah,  thou  God  to  whom  vengeance  belongeth, 
Thou  God  to  whom  vengeance  belongeth,  shine  forth. 
Lift  up  thyself,  thou  judge  of  the  earth: 
Render  to  the  proud  their  desert. 
Jehovah,  how  long  shall  the  wicked, 
How  long  shall  the  wicked  triumph? 
They  prate,  they  speak  arrogantly: 
All  the  workers  of  iniquity  boast  themselves. 
They  break  in  pieces  thy  people,  O  Jehovah, 
And  afflict  thy  heritage. 
They  slay  the  widow  and  the  sojourner, 
And  murder  the  fatherless. 
And  they  say,  Jehovah  will  not  see, 
Neither  will  the  God  of  Jacob  consider. 
Consider,  ye  brutish  among  the  people; 
And  ye  fools,  when  will  ye  be  wise? 
He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall  he  not  hear? 
He  that  formed  the  eye,  shall  he  not  see? 
He  that  chastiseth  the  nations,  shall  not  he  correct, 
Even  he  that  teacheth  man  knowledge? 
Jehovah  knoweth  the  thoughts  of  man, 
That  they  are  vanity. 

Blessed  is  the  man  whom  thou  chastenest,  O  Jehovah, 
And  teachest  out  of  thy  law ; 

That  thou  mayest  give  him  rest  from  the  days  of  adversity, 
Until  the  pit  be  digged  for  the  wicked. 
For  Jehovah  will  not  cast  off  his  people, 
Neither  will  he  forsake  his  inheritance. 
For  judgment  shall  return  unto  righteousness; 
And  all  the  upright  in  heart  shall  follow  it. 
Who  will  rise  up  for  me  against  the  evil-doers? 
Who  will  stand  up  for  me  against  the  workers  of  iniquity? 

— Psalm  94.  1-16. 


THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

For  the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the 
Spirit  against  the  flesh ;  for  these  are  contrary  the 
one  to  the  other;  that  ye  may  not  do  the  things  that 
ye  would.  But  if  ye  are  led  by  the  Spirit,  ye  are  not 
under  the  law.  Now  the  works  of  the  flesh  are 
manifest,  which  are  these:  fornication,  uncleanness, 
lasciviousness,  idolatry,  sorcery,  enmities,  strife, 
jealousies,  wraths,  factions,  divisions,  parties,  envy- 
ings,  drunkenness,  revelings,  and  such  like ;  of  which 
I  forewarn  you,  even  as  I  did  forewarn  you,  that 
they  who  practice  such  things  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God. — Galatians  5.  17-21. 


THE  LESSON 

The  liquor  business  a  poiver  to  be  reckoned  with 

The  liquor  problem  challenges  the  attention  of  every  patriot, 
particularly  if  he  prays :  "Thy  Kingdom  come,  Thy  will  be 
done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  A  fulfillment  of  that 
prayer  means,  among  other  things,  a  State,  a  nation,  a  world 
without  the  evils  which  can  be  traced  to  the  saloon.  Men 
may  hold  different  views  as  to  the  solution  of  the  problem, 
but  no  man  who  looks  thoughtfully  at  the  facts  can  doubt 
the  magnitude  of  the  liquor  traffic  and  the  peril  which  it  has 
become  to  American  life.  It  involves  large  numbers  of 
men,  enormous  quantities  of  raw  materials,  and  vast  sums 
of  money.  It  affects  the  economic,  social,  and  political  life 
of  all  the  people,  and  it  is  so  organized  as  to  use  its  influence 
and  power  to  further  its  own  definite  purpose  to  increase 
its  markets  and  profits. 

Where  it  is  sold 

To  appreciate  the  size  of  the  business  we  must  know  some- 
thing of  the  making  and  selling  of  liquor.  There  are  ap- 
proximately one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  places  in 
the  United  States  where  liquor  is  sold,  including  saloons, 
restaurants,  hotels,  clubs,  etc.  Over  thirty  per  cent  of  these 
places  are  saloons.  They  aggregate  an  owned  and  rented 


MAGNITUDE   AND    SERIOUSNESS  3 

capital  of  about  $1,000,000,000  and  employ  about  two  hundred 
thousand  men. 

A  Titanic  disaster 

The  Titanic  carried  down  fifteen  hundred  and  three  people. 
But  the  liquor  business  destroys  that  number  of  men  and 
women  every  eight  days  in  the  year.  At  least  one  man  in 
every  seven  and  one-half  men  who  die  in  the  United  States 
loses  his  life  as  the  direct  or  indirect  result  of  drink. 

Vice  and  poverty 

Conditions  in  and  around  the  average  saloon,  dance  hall, 
summer  resort,  hotel  bar,  and  liquor-selling  cafe  show  that 
they  breed  vice  as  well  as  poverty.  On  this  point  the  testi- 
mony of  the  liquor  trade  itself,  as  stated  in  the  North  Amer- 
ican Wine  and  Spirit  Journal,  March,  1913,  runs  as  follows : 
"Some  of  the  drinking  places  found  in  nearly  all  the  large 
cities  are  a  blot  upon  American  civilization.  .  .  .  Many  de- 
pend upon  the  debauching  of  women  as  a  source  of  indirect 
revenue." 

Liquor  making 

There  are  in  the  United  States  twenty-three  hundred  and 
seventeen  liquor-making  establishments  with  a  total  capital  of 
over  $770,000,000.  Their  economic  importance  is  best  shown 
by  the  number  of  wage-earners  employed.  It  is  shown  in 
the  "Abstract  of  the  United  States  Census,"  1910,  that  "in 
this  respect  the  brewery  industry  ranks  twenty-fifth  among 
the  industries  listed  and  the  distillery  industry  forty-third/' 
This  gives  them  a  comparatively  low  place  from  the  view- 
point of  economic  importance  as  is  shown  by  the  following 
table : 

For  each  $1,000,000  invested 

Ladies'   clothing   industry  employs....   1,180  workers 
Men's  clothing  industry  employs 870  workers 


4  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

Boot  and  shoe  industry  employs 884  workers 

Lumber  and  timber  products  employ..  590  workers 

Bread  and  bakery  products  employ....  454  workers 

The  average  industry  employs 358  workers 

Liquor-making  industry  employs 81  workers 

Liquor  consumption 

In  the  United  States  during  the  year  ending  June,  1912, 
2,128,452,226  gallons  of  liquor  were  consumed,  an  average  of 
21.98  gallons  for  each  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  country, 
or  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  gallons  for  each  average- 
sized  family.  Since  a  great  many  people  do  not  drink  at  all, 
those  who  do  must  have  consumed  far  more  per  capita  and 
per  family  than  this.  It  is  alarming  to  notice  the  rate  of 
increase  of  this  consumption  per  capita.  It  was  4.17  gallons 
in  1840;  4.08  gallons  in  1850;  6.43  gallons  in  1860;  7.7  in  1870; 
16.72  in  1890;  17.76  in  1900;  19.85  in  1905. 

The  cost  of  drink 

A  very  conservative  estimate  of  the  direct  annual  cost  of 
drink  is  $1,750,000,000.    Compare  this  with  other  expenditures : 
$165,000,000  Church  Expenditures,  1906. 
$233,778,000  Potatoes    (farm  value). 
$290,430,728  Panama  Canal   (up  to  November  I,  1912). 
$426,250,434  Public  Schools,  1910. 

$654,804,624  United  States  Government  Expenditures,  1912. 
$737,876,000  Printing  and  Publishing,  1912. 
$1,000,000,000  Iron  and   Steel,   1906. 
$1,484,889,647  Cattle  on  Farms,  1910. 
$1,750,000,000  Liquor  Cost,  1911. 

Wages  and  raw  materials 

What  part  of  the  money  spent  for  liquor  pays  for  wages 
and  for  raw  material? 


MAGNITUDE   AND    SERIOUSNESS  5 

$100  spent  by  the  consumer  for 

Automobiles  will  pay  in  wages    $23. 10 

and  use  up  materials  worth 62.50 

Women's  clothing  will  pay  in  wages 23.00 

and  use  up  materials  worth 61 . 10 

Men's  clothing  will  pay  in  wages 20.70 

and  use  up  materials  worth 57. 90 

Boots  and  shoes  will  pay  in  wages  20.60 

and  use  up  materials  worth 69.60 

Paper  and  wood  pulp  will  pay  in  wages 17.20 

and  use  up  materials  worth 69.80 

Average  industry  will  pay  in  wages 18.60 

and  use  up  materials  worth 65.90 

Malt  and  distilled  liquors  will  pay  in  wages 8.90 

and  use  up  materials  worth 26.80 

The  evidence  is  conclusive  that  neither  the  laborer  nor  the 
producer  of  raw  material  can  afford  to  let  the  making  of 
liquor  replace  the  many  industries  which  surpass  it  in  per 
cent  paid  for  labor  and  for  raw  material. 

The  indirect  cost  of  drink 

The  magnitude  and  seriousness  of  the  liquor  business  are 
seen  in  its  indirect  effects.  In  addition  to  the  money  paid 
over  the  bar,  the  liquor  traffic  "holds  up"  society  in  many 
other  ways.  One  hundred  and  fourteen  million  five  hundred 
thousand  bushels  of  grain  and  forty-four  million  three  hun- 
dred thousand  gallons  of  molasses  that  might  be  used  to 
satisfy  normal  demands  for  food  are  annually  made  into 
liquor.  The  strength  and  ability  of  about  three  hundred 
thousand  men  are  wasted  in  making  and  selling  intoxicants ; 
and  besides  this  they  are  needed  to  develop  natural  resources 
and  to  carry  on  beneficent  industrial  enterprises.  The  drink- 
ing man's  highest  mental  and  physical  efficiency  is  impaired 
by  this  indulgence  in  alcoholic  drinks.  The  moderate 
drinker's  losses  are  from  eight  to  ten  per  cent.  Industrial 


6  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

accidents,  sickness,  and  death  from  this  cause  cut  down  the 
labor  force  of  the  community.  Hospitals,  poor-houses,  insane 
asylums,  and  prisons  are  from  ten  to  fifty  per  cent  fuller 
because  of  alcoholics.  Society  is  thus  called  upon  to  pay 
millions  of  dollars  to  support  and  care  for  the  wretched 
products  of  the  liquor  business.  This  indirect  cost  exceeds 
$1,000,000,000  annually,  and  is  easily  twice  as  great  as  the 
amount  received  by  the  national,  city,  and  town  governments 
from  liquor  licenses  and  taxes. 

Policy  of  the  liquor  traffic 

The  allies  of  the  liquor  traffic  are  legion  in  number  and 
are  often  found  in  the  most  unexpected  quarters.  The  large 
number  of  men  with  whom  the  trade  has  business  dealings 
(buying  from  them  all  kinds  of  commodities  from  grain 
and  bottles  to  steam  engines  and  fire  insurance)  are  in- 
fluenced to  take  sides  with  them.  It  appeals  to  them  as 
"good  business"  to  do  so.  The  United  States  Brewers' 
Association  has  formed  as  many  of  these  men  as  they  can 
reach  into  "business  men's  associations"  and  leagues  for 
political  purposes.  These  organizations  under  different  names 
in  various  States  publish  license  campaign  papers,  send  out 
literature,  and  hold  rallies.  The  value  of  such  work  to  the 
liquor  interests  is  far  greater  because  the  ordinary  citizen 
knows  nothing  of  the  true  purpose  and  backing  of  these 
leagues.  A  typical  letter  sent  out  by  such  a  body,  The  Manu- 
facturers' and  Merchants'  Association  of  New  Jersey,  clearly 
implies  a  boycott  of  the  business  man  who  fails  to  pay  his 
dues: 

"We  are  again  calling  upon  you  for  your  dues  for 
membership  in  The  Manufacturers'  and  Merchants' 
Association  of  New  Jersey.  We  are  about  preparing 
our  yearly  report  to  be  presented  to  the  members  and 
brewers  of  the  State,  and  we  do  not  wish  to  hand  in 
your  name  to  the  brewers  as  a  delinquent  member  of 
the  association.  You  are  doing  a  yearly  business  with 
the  brewing  industry  which  is  seeking  to  support  itself 


MAGNITUDE   AND    SERIOUSNESS  7 

through    this    organization    against   the    Anti-Saloon 
League." 

Newspapers  allies  of  the  liquor  traffic 

With  few  exceptions  the  newspaper  which  publishes  liquor 
advertisements  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  ally  of  the  trade, 
for  the  large  revenue  from  this  source  is  promptly  withdrawn 
whenever  the  editor  prints  news  items  or  editorials  which 
reflect  unfavorably  upon  the  traffic.  In  the  spring  of  1910 
the  Boston  Herald  was  thus  disciplined  because  of  its  advo- 
cacy of  a  temperance  measure  pending  in  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature. 

Municipal  licenses  as  allies  of  the  liquor  traffic 

New  York  City  annually  receives  $12,800,000  and  Chicago 
$7,000,000  from  municipal  licenses.  One  of  the  bad  results 
of  this  system  is  the  practical  bribing  of  voters  to  favor 
"license"  at  the  polls.  The  senior  deacon  of  a  Massachusetts 
church  votes  for  license,  saying,  "How  can  our  town  pay  its 
bills  if  we  cut  off  this  source  of  revenue?"  Because  of  the 
indirect  cost  of  the  liquor  business,  the  deacon's  argument  is 
"penny  wise  and  pound  foolish."  But  the  point  here  is  that 
he  is  a  useful  ally  of  the  liquor  interests. 

Organisations  allied  to  the  liquor  traffic 

All  over  the  country  the  trade  has  formed  local,  State,  and 
national  organizations,  cooperating  to  guard  its  interests 
by  educational  campaigns  and  political  activity.  The  most 
important  national  associations  with  which  the  smaller  bodies 
are  affiliated  are 

The  National  Retail  Liquor  Dealers'  Association, 
The  National  Wholesale  Liquor  Dealers'  Association, 
The  National  Liquor  League  of  the  United  States,  and 
The  United  States  Brewers'  Association. 


8  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

Educational  campaigns  of  liquor  interests 

Practically  every  liquor  men's  organization  has  a  publicity 
department.  The  work  of  The  United  States  Brewers'  Asso- 
ciation is  typical  of  what  is  being  done  by  other  such  bodies. 
The  report  of  its  publicity  committee  and  a  "Literary  Treat- 
ment of  the  Liquor  Question"  take  up  more  than  half  of 
their  three-hundred-page  year  book  for  1913.  The  same 
association  publishes  "The  Text  Book  of  True  Temperance," 
which  for  •more  than  three  hundred  and  twenty  pages  pleads 
for  the  extended  use  of  and  sale  of  beer  and  light  wines. 
It  contains  frequent  errors  and  perversions  of  fact,  and 
misinterprets  many  of  the  statistics  which  it  does  not  mis- 
quote. Moreover,  it  has  been  sent  free  to  a  great  many  public 
libraries  in  cities  and  small  towns  as  a  trustworthy  work  on 
temperance.  Even  at  the  Boston  Public  Library  it  was  ac- 
cepted, catalogued,  and  placed  on  the  shelves  beside  reliable 
volumes  on  the  subject,  until  persistent  remonstrance  called 
attention  to  the  errors  it  contained.  It  was  finally  removed, 
but  it  still  remains  in  many  libraries. 

Political  aggressiveness 

This  educational  work  is  largely  for  political  ends.  The 
main  objects  of  the  organization  of  the  "wet"  forces  are  to 
get  a  license  vote,  elect  men  to  office  whom  they  can  "influ- 
ence," defeat  unfavorable  legislation,  and  secure  favorable 
legislation.  When  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  Police  Commis- 
sioner of  New  York  city,  he  said,  "The  most  powerful  saloon 
keepers  controlled  the  politicians  and  the  police,  while  the 
latter  terrorized  and  blackmailed  all  other  saloon  keepers.  If 
the  American  people  do  not  control  it,  it  will  control  them." 

Use  of  attorneys  and  publicity  bureaus 

The  work  of  the  national  liquor  associations  and  leagues  is 
shown  in  the  following  quotation  from  The  Northwestern 
Liquor  and  Tobacco  Journal: 


MAGNITUDE   AND    SERIOUSNESS  9 

»"The  National  Wholesale  Liquor  Dealers'  Associa- 
tion and  the  National  Brewers'  Association  employ 
high-salaried  attorneys  to  protect  their  interests  at  the 
State  Legislatures  and  in  Congress.  They  maintain 
at  great  expense  a  publicity  bureau,  sending  out  tons 
of  literature  treating  the  economic  side  of  the  prob- 
lem. They  assess  themselves  thousands  of  dollars 
to  defray  this  expense.  Their  respective  political 
bureaus  spend  an  untold  amount  of  money  to  prevent 
drastic  legislation." 

The  need  of  personal  interest  and  united  effort 

The  magnitude  and  danger  of  the  liquor  business  are 
apparent.  Its  forces  are  moving  forward  together  with  a 
definite  program  of  extension.  The  moral  forces  must  also 
get  together  and  move  forward  behind  a  definite  program 
of  equal  magnitude  if  they  are  sincere  and  intelligent  in 
their  opposition  to  the  saloon.  The  liquor  traffic  will  end  in 
America  whenever  the  American  citizens  really  want  it  to 
end,  that  is,  whenever  they  are  sufficiently  in  earnest  to  do 
something  about  it,  not  one  minute  before.  The  challenge 
comes  to  each  man  in  the  questions:  "What  are  you  going 
to  do  about  it?"  "To  what  extent  do  you  feel  an  individual 
responsibility?" 

The  opinion  of  safe  and  intelligent  leaders 

Intelligent  leaders  in  the  fight  against  the  Liquor  Business 
have  thus  described  it: 

"The  liquor  traffic  is  national  in  its  organization, 
character,  and  influence.  It  overflows  the  boundaries 
of  States  and  refuses  to  be  regulated  or  controlled. 
It  is  a  federal  evil;  a  national  menace,  top  powerful 
for  State  authority,  requiring  national  jurisdiction 
and  treatment.  It  beggars  the  individual,  burdens  the 
State,  and  impoverishes  the  nation.  It  commercializes 
vice  and  capitalizes  human  weakness.  It  impairs  the 
public  health,  breaks  the  public  peace,  and  debauches 
the  public  morals.  It  intimidates  and  makes  cowards 
of  public  men.  It  dominates  parties  and  conventions. 
It  cajoles,  bribes,  or  badgers  the  makers,  interpreters. 


io  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

and  administrators   of  law,  and   suborns  the  public 
press. 

"It  claims  for  itself  a  special  right  and  privilege 
asserted  by  no  other  interest  in  all  the  land,  however 
great  or  powerful;  a  right  and  privilege  utterly  in- 
compatible with  free  government,  the  right  and  privi- 
lege to  infract  municipal  ordinances  at  will,  to  violate 
and  break  legislative  resolves  and  enactments,  and  to 
set  aside  the  constitutional  provisions  of  sovereign 
States,  however  solemn  and  sacred.  Refusing  all 
domestic  regulation  and  control,  it  leaves  the  Amer- 
ican people  but  two  alternatives — the  abject  surrender 
of  their  inherent  right  of  self-government  or  its 
national  annihilation.  Between  such  a  choice  free 
men  cannot  hesitate." 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

To  what  extent  will  liquor  manufacturers  and  dealers  de- 
velop their  business  if  no  opposition  confronts  them? 

To  what  useful  ends  could  the  three  hundred  thousand 
men  now  employed  in  the  liquor  business  be  employed? 

If  a  "hard  drinker"  should  substitute  coffee  and  water 
for  alcoholic  drinks,  how  much  less  would  it  cost  him  in  a 
year? 

What  could  he  do  with  his  savings? 

Would  the  change  be  injurious  to  him  in  any  way? 

Would  it  be  easier  for  him  to  remain  temperate  if  there 
were  no  saloons? 

What  responsibility  has  a  Christian  man  for  the  character 
of  the  public  sentiment  in  his  community  relative  to  the 
saloon  ? 

How  could  it  be  made  profitable  for  newspapers  to  refuse 
liquor  advertisements? 

Suggest  political  plans  for  the  extermination  or  curtail- 
ment of  the  liquor  business:  (i)  in  your  community,  (2)  State, 
(3)  nation. 

Do  the  present  liquor  laws  represent  public  sentiment  on 
this  question  in  your  community? 

How  can  that  sentiment  be  elevated? 


MAGNITUDE  AND   SERIOUSNESS  11 

What  is  your  answer  to  the  Psalmist's  question:  How  long 
shall  the  wicked  triumph? 

Can  a  man  dominated  by  the  spirit  of  Christ  be  engaged  in 
the  liquor  business? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 
Bring  out  clearly  these  three  points: 

The  magnitude  of  the  liquor  business:  capital  invested, 
men  employed,  raw  material  used,  methods  used  for  self- 
protection  and  development,  vast  sums  of  money  spent  by 
consumers,  allies. 

The  nature  of  the  liquor  business:  relation  to  poverty  and 
vice,  relative  economic  inferiority,  indirect  burdens  placed 
upon  the  community  and  state,  its  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  injury  to  the  individual.  Social  and  political  corrup- 
tion. 

Ignorance,  indifference,  and  lack  of  cooperation  on  the 
part  of  those  voters  who  are  responsible  for  public  opinion 
and  laws  permitting  this  business  to  thrive.  Ultimately  the 
saloon  or  the  nation  must  be  overthrown. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS   CAN   Do 

Find  out  how  many  saloons  in  our  community  are  owned 
or  controlled  by  brewers. 

Find  out  how  much  money  is  invested  in  the  liquor  busi- 
ness: (i)  in  our  community,  (2)  in  our  State.  How  much  is 
spent  for  drink  in  our  community?  How  much  of  this 
money  leaves  the  community? 

Investigate  the  influence  of  liquor  advertisements  upon  the 
attitude  of  the  local  newspapers  toward  the  liquor  business. 


NOTE:  It  is  very  important  that  a  permanent  committee 
be  appointed  to  keep  carefully,  permanently,  and  systemati- 
cally the  facts  brought  out  in  the  investigations  made  from 
week  to  week. 


LESSON    II 

THE  PHYSICAL  EFFECTS  OF 
ALCOHOL 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

And  when  he  had  brought  him  down,  behold,  they 
were  spread  abroad  over  all  the  ground,  eating  and 
drinking,  and  dancing,  because  of  all  the  great  spoil 
that  they  had  taken  out  of  the  land  of  the  Philistines, 
and  out  of  the  land  of  Judah.  And  David  smote 
them  from  the  twilight  even  unto  the  evening  of  the 
next  day :  and  there  escaped  not  a  man  of  them,  save 
four  hundred  young  men,  who  rode  upon  camels  and 
fled. — I  Samuel  30.  16,  17. 

In  the  twenty  and  sixth  year  of  Asa  king  of  Judah 
began  Elah  the  son  of  Baasha  to  reign  over  Israel  in 
Tirzah,  and  reigned  two  years.  And  his  servant 
Zimri,  captain  of  half  his  chariots,  conspired  against 
him.  Now  he  was  in  Tirzah,  drinking  himself  drunk 
in  the  house  of  Arza,  who  was  over  the  household  in 
Tirzah :  and  Zimri  went  in  and  smote  him,  and  killed 
him,  in  the  twenty  and  seventh  year  of  Asa  king  of 
Judah,  and  reigned  in  his  stead. — I  Kings  16.  8-10. 

And  every  man  that  striveth  in  the  games  exerciseth 
self-control  in  all  things.  Now  they  do  it  to  receive 
a  corruptible  crown;  but  we  an  incorruptible. — i  Cor- 
inthians 9.  25. 

THE  LESSON 
The  origin  and  nature  of  alcohol 

Yeast  is  a  microscopic  plant.  It  is  a  fungus  growth,  not 
being  able  to  make  its  own  food  like  ordinary  plants,  but 
living  upon  the  food  materials  of  others.  When  the  yeast 
plant  comes  into  contact  with  sugar,  it  feeds  upon  it,  chang- 
ing the  sugar  in  such  a  way  that  carbonic  acid  gas  and 
alcohol  are  left  in  its  place.  If  it  were  unable  to  throw  off 

12 


PHYSICAL    EFFECTS    OF    ALCOHOL  13 

this  waste  material,  its  vital  processes  would  become  clogged 
and  death  would  result.  In  fermentation,  yeast  is  the  active 
agent.  But  when  a  bottle  of  cider  or  grape  juice,  for  instance, 
has  fermented  until  it  contains  twelve  per  cent  of  alcohol, 
the  yeast  plant  dies,  being  poisoned  by  the  waste  material  it 
has  thrown  off.  Thus  alcohol,  like  the  excretions  of  lower 
plants  and  animals,  is  a  poison  to  those  of  a  higher  order. 
It  is  present  in  malt  and  distilled  as  well  as  fermented 
liquors. 

Is  alcohol  a  stimulant? 

Dr.  Henry  S.  Williams,  after  long  and  careful  observations 
upon  the  influence  of  alcohol,  says : 

"The  traditional  role  of  alcohol  is  that  of  a  stimu- 
lant. It  has  been  supposed  to  stimulate  digestion  and 
assimilation;  to  stimulate  the  heart's  action;  to  stimu- 
late muscular  activity  and  strength ;  to  stimulate  the 
mind.  The  new  evidence  seems  to  show  that,  in  the 
final  analysis,  alcohol  stimulates  none  of  these  activi- 
ties ;  that  its  final  effect  is  everywhere  depressive  and 
inhibitory  (at  any  rate  as  regards  higher  functions) 
rather  than  stimulative ;  that,  in  short,  it  is  properly 
to  be  classed  with  the  anesthetics  and  narcotics.  The 
grounds  for  this  view  should  be  of  interest  to  every 
user  of  alcohol ;  of  interest,  for  that  matter,  to  every 
citizen,  considering  that  more  than  one  thousand  mil- 
lion gallons  of  alcoholic  beverages  are  consumed  in 
the  United  States  each  year." 

A  custom  based  on  ignorance 

It  was  while  people  w*ere  ignorant  of  the  final  and  real 
effects  of  alcohol  that  this  injurious  custom  of  alcoholic 
drinking  grew  to  such  gigantic  proportions.  Through  igno- 
rance and  error  men  have  mistaken  for  real  strength  a 
feeling  which  to  their  temporarily  blurred  judgments  seemed 
like  that  of  strength.  Dr.  John  J.  Abel,  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  says  that  "both  science  and  experience  of  life 
have  exploded  the  pernicious  theory  that  alcohol  gives 
any  persistent  increase  of  muscular  power.  The  disappear- 


i4  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

ance  of  this  universal  error  will  greatly  reduce  the  consump- 
tion of  alcohol  among  laboring  men/'  Men  have  thought 
they  were  working  faster,  with  greater  accuracy,  and  better 
while  those  of  sober  judgment  who  watched  them  could 
detect  a  marked  decrease  in  efficiency.  The  misinterpreted 
feelings  due  to  alcohol  have  made  possible  the  enormous 
growth  of  a  really  harmful  custom. 

This  feeling  further  defined 

What  is  supposed  to  be  stimulation  is  the  effect  of  the 
poison  in  paralyzing  in  part  or  in  whole  the  higher  centers 
of  control  whose  function  is  to  keep  all  the  activities  in 
coordination.  The  man  who  staggers  may  feel  that  he  is 
making  superb  headway.  His  power  to  appreciate  a  lack 
of  coordination  in  the  movements  of  the  muscles  has  been 
taken  away.  His  feeling  of  elation  may  cause  him  to  wear 
a  smile  on  his  face  or  even  to  boast  of  his  happiness  to  every 
one  he  meets.  But  the  cool,  sober  judgment  of  those  who 
know  condemns  his  conduct  as  pathetically  ridiculous. 

The  narcotic  effect  of  alcohol 

The  greatest  effect  of  alcohol  is  registered  in  the  central 
nervous  system.  The  small  amount  contained  in  a  glass  or 
two  causes  the  face  to  become  somewhat  flushed,  leads  one 
to  talk  more  freely  and  to  act  as  though  at  greater  ease. 
Natural  shyness  or  diffidence  is  gone,  and  in  its  place  come 
boldness  and  loquacity.  Greater  confidence  in  both  physical 
and  mental  ability  is  expressed.  '  The  former  sense  of 
propriety  is  lulled  to  sleep.  The  higher  mental  faculties  that 
control  the  animal  impulses  become  dull  and  ineffective.  The 
self-restraint  that  is  necessary  in  the  conduct  of  a  true  gentle- 
man or  gentlewoman,  the  sensitive  appreciation  of  the  higher 
good,  and  the  power  to  bring  oneself  into  harmony  therewith 
ebb  away  as  the  quantity  of  alcohol  taken  is  increased.  In 
its  extreme  effect  upon  these  higher  centers  of  self-control, 
debauchery  and  lewdness  are  seen.  Intoxication  may  cause 


PHYSICAL    EFFECTS    OF    ALCOHOL  15 

one  to  think  his  actions  heroic,  for  he  judges  them  by  his 
feelings.     The  sober  man  knows  they  are  hellish. 

Alcohol  is  the  enemy  of  the  blood 

"If  ordinary  air,  containing  twenty  per  cent  oxygen,  is 
mixed  with  pure  blood,  ten  per  cent  of  the  oxygen  will 
disappear,  but  with  five  per  cent  of  alcohol  added  to  the 
blood  only  four  per  cent  of  the  oxygen  will  be  taken  up. 
The  blood  is  the  home  of  the  red  and  white  corpuscles.  The 
red  corpuscles,  little,  flattened  disks,  only  one  thirty-two- 
hundredths  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  cause  waste  matter  to  be 
burned  up,  producing  heat.  The  white  corpuscles,  or  leuco- 
cytes, one  twenty-five-hundredths  of  an  inch  in  diameter, 
help  to  clean  the  body  of  waste  matter  and  disease  germs. 
If  a  pneumonia  germ  enters  the  body,  the  white  blood  cor- 
puscles surround  it  and  swallow  it.  Hence,  they  are  called 
phagocytes,  or  cells  which  devour.  They  are  assisted  in 
fighting  disease  by  substances  in  the  blood  which  are  poisonous 
to  disease  microbes.  These  substances  are  called  opsonins. 
The  amount  of  opsonins  grows  less  in  bad  health.  If  the 
finger  is  cut,  the  'matter'  which  appears  in  time  is  composed 
of  the  dead  bodies  of  the  white  blood  corpuscles  which  have 
been  destroyed  in  fighting  the  germs  of  infection.  The 
white  blood  corpuscles  do  not  like  poison,  and  when  even 
small  quantities  of  alcohol  are  taken,  they  are  repelled, 
driven  out  of  the  blood  vessels,  and  if  the  finger  is  cut,  are 
unable  to  make  their  way  through  the  flesh  quickly.  If  they 
do  make  their  way  into  the  blood  vessels  again  to  fight 
disease  germs,  they  are  sluggish,  unable  to  succeed,  and 
sickness  follows."  It  was  found  in  the  Pasteur  Institute  of 
Paris  that  in  almost  every  case  the  failures  to  check  the 
development  of  hydrophobia  in  persons  sent  to  the  Institute 
occurred  in  alcoholic  patients." 

Loss  of  the  powers  of  discrimination 
After  thus  showing  the  baneful  effects  which  come  to  one 


16  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

who  uses  a  small  amount  of  alcohol,  Dr.  W.  Stewart  Whitte- 
more,  a  graduate  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  goes  on 
to  say: 

"If  his  indulgence  in  alcohol  continues,  his  powers 
of  discrimination  are  next  impaired.  He  will  invite 
any  stranger  that  happens  along  to  drink  with  him, 
and  he  will  intrust  his  money  and  his  belongings  to 
this  chance  acquaintance  as  he  would  to  his  most 
intimate  friend.  In  his  increasing  loquacity  he  will 
tell  anything  that  happens  to  come  into  his  mind,  and 
in  this  way  many  a  business  secret  or  family  skeleton 
has  been  betrayed.  Distinctions  between  right  and 
wrong  fade  out  in  his  mind.  A  previously  moral  man 
will  commit  acts  when  in  this  condition  which  he 
would  never  think  of  doing  ordinarily,  and  which  he 
may  regret  deeply  when  sober.  He  may  become  sud- 
denly quarrelsome  or  vicious  to  such  an  extent  that 
he  will  strike  those  who  are  dear  to  him." 

Description  of  the  drunken  state 

At  this  stage  the  power  of  control  of  the  muscles  is 
seriously  interfered  with.  The  movements  of  arms  and  legs 
are  uncertain  and  awkward.  Gestures  are  exaggerated,  the 
hand  shakes  as  it  reaches  for  the  glass  and  the  man  is 
unable  to  stand  steadily  or  walk  straight.  Sometimes  a 
peculiar  recklessness  comes  over  the  partially  intoxicated 
man  and  he  will  attempt  the  most  absurdly  dangerous  feats. 
A  man  in  this  condition  was  seen  deliberately  to  take  a 
hundred  pound  cake  of  ice  and  drop  it  down  two  flights  of 
stairs.  If  anyone  had  chanced  to  walk  through  the  hall 
below  at  that  moment  he  would  have  been  killed  instantly. 

"Eventually  the  man's  speech  becomes  thick  and  incoherent, 
his  powers  of  sight  and  hearing  are  impaired,  and  he  sinks 
into  a  deep  stupor  which  is  frequently  preceded  by  nausea 
and  vomiting.  In  this  stage  the  spinal  cord  shares  in  the 
depression  which  we  have  noted  in  the  brain.  The  man 
slumps  from  his  seat  to  the  floor,  limp  and  helpless,  to  sleep 
off  the  effects  of  the  drug.  If  very  large  doses  have  been 
taken  he  may  remain  unconscious  ten  or  twelve  hours. 


PHYSICAL    EFFECTS    OF    ALCOHOL  17 

Occasionally  a  drinker  will  take  so  much  whiskey  or  other 
form  of  hard  liquor  that  he  never  regains  consciousness.  In 
such  cases  death  is  due  to  the  paralysis  of  that  very  important 
portion  of  the  brain  called  the  medulla,  where  the  vital 
functions,  such  as  breathing,  are  regulated  and  controlled. 

The  effect  of  habitual  drinking 

"The  man  who  becomes  acutely  intoxicated  once  may 
recover  entirely  at  the  end  of  forty-eight  hours.  How  is  it 
with  the  man  who  repeats  the  process  week  in  and  week  out? 
A  slow  but  permanent  impairment  of  the  higher  brain  func- 
tions becomes  noticeable.  In  the  majority  of  cases  the  first 
evidence  of  this  is  the  gradual  decline  of  the  power  of 
originality.  The  ability  to  invent,  to  open  up  new  avenues 
of  business  activity  or  of  science,  which  constitutes  the 
highest  form  of  mental  activity,  is  the  first  to  be  lost. 

"As  time  goes  on  there  appears  noticeable  diminution  in  the 
power  to  concentrate  the  attention  upon  one  thing  for  any 
length  of  time.  The  habitual  drinker's  mind  acts  as  if  con- 
tinually fatigued.  Thus  it  is  not  surprising  that  business 
ability  diminishes  because  the  very  factors  which  contribute 
to  the  making  of  a  successful  business  man  are  constantly 
being  undermined.  Judgment  and  ability  to  reason  clearly 
become  things  of  the  past  to  the  chronic  alcoholic." 

Alcohol  the  enemy  of  the  heart  and  blood  vessels 

Fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart  is  frequently  the  result  of 
alcoholic  drinking.  It  acts  as  a  direct  poison  on  the  heart's 
muscles  and  so  causes  the  muscle  fibers  to  become  slightly 
swollen  in  appearance;  there  is  an  increase  of  the  fibrous 
tissue  between  them  and,  later  on,  they  become  impregnated 
with  particles  of  fat.  This  is  accompanied  by  dilatation  of 
the  heart,  and  subsequently  weakening  of  the  valves.  The 
increased  work  put  upon  this  organ  as  an  effect  of  the  use 
of  alcohol  also  causes  its  degeneration  from  sheer  exhaustion. 
Alcohol  causes  the  small  blood  vessels  to  dilate  and  stay 


i8  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

distended,   for  they  have   lost  their  power  to   relax,   and   it 
also  weakens  the  arteries  and  veins,  which  are  apt  to  rupture. 

Alcohol  and  the  muscles 

In  injuring  the  blood,  making  it  incapable  of  performing 
its  natural  function,  alcohol  becomes  the  enemy  of  the 
muscles.  It  hinders  their  being  built  up  by  the  absorption  of 
food.  It  interferes  with  the  carrying  of  oxygen  to  the 
muscles  and  the  removing  of  waste  matter  so  that  waste 
outruns  repair.  The  muscles  of  the  hard  drinker  become 
soft  and  flabby  while  their  strength  is  correspondingly 
diminished. 

Alcohol  as  a  household  remedy 

In  a  carefully  prepared  statement  Captain  Richmond  Hobson 
says: 

"The  greater  liability  to  disease  in  drinkers  is  true 
as  to  pneumonia,  typhoid,  and,  broadly  speaking,  to 
all  diseases.  So  the  idea  that  you  need  alcohol,  or 
that  it  is  a  legitimate  household  remedy,  has  been 
entirely  exploded.  Henceforth,  I  believe,  when  laws 
are  drafted  for  the  various  States,  legislators  will  not 
make  any  exception  to  the  use  of  alcohol,  or  alcoholic 
beverages,  even  for  use  for  medicinal  purposes.  You 
can  wipe  out  its  use  for  medicinal  purposes  without 
loss." 

Alcohol  the  ally  of  disease 

Statistics  of  H.  Dillon  Gouge,  public  actuary,  South 
Australia,  for  the  years  1890-92,  show  that  the  average  number 
of  weeks  of  sickness  per  member  in  accident  insurance 
societies  writing  only  abstainers,  was  1.2  weeks.  The  average 
number  of  weeks  in  general  societies  was  2.3  weeks.  The 
average  duration  of  the  time  of  sickness  in  abstaining 
societies  was  6.4  weeks,  and  in  general  societies  10.9  weeks. 
In  abstaining  societies,  the  loss  by  death  was  .6  per  cent; 
in  general  societies  1.3  per  cent. 


PHYSICAL    EFFECTS    OF    ALCOHOL  19 

Abstinence  and  longevity 

At  30  years  of  age,  the  average  insured  man  may  expect 
to  live  35  years  longer;  the  abstainer  may  expect  to  live  38.8 
years  longer.  At  40  years  of  age,  the  average  insured  man's 
expectation  of  life  is  27.3  years;  the  abstainers,  30.1  years, 
an  advantage  of  about  eleven  per  cent  for  the  abstainer 
(R.  M.  Moore,  Actuary). 

Experience  of  the  New  York  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany, 1875-1889,  showed  that  among  insured  abstainers  the 
death  rate  was  only  seventy-eight  per  cent  of  the  expected 
rate;  among  non-abstainers  it  was  ninety-six  per  cent  (Van 
Cice). 

Deaths  due  to  drink 

Joel  G.  Van  Cise,  Actuary  of  the  Equitable  Life  Assurance 
Society  of  the  United  States,  says : 

"The  experience  of  the  Sceptre  Life  Assurance 
Society,  Ltd.,  for  the  twenty  years  from  1884  to  1903 
inclusive  gives  the  following  figures:  For  abstainers, 
expected  deaths,  fourteen  hundred  and  forty;  actual 
deaths,  seven  hundred  and  ninety-two ;  being  fifty-five 
per  cent  of  the  expected  deaths.  Non-abstainers, 
expected  deaths,  twenty-seven  hundred  and  thirty; 
actual  deaths,  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty,  or 
seventy-nine  per  cent  of  the  expected." 

The  Scottish  Temperance  Assurance  Company,  for  the 
same  period,  showed  the  relation  of  actual  to  expected 
deaths  was  twenty-six  per  cent  higher  for  non-abstainers 
than  for  abstainers. 

In  the  case  of  both  companies  the  difference  as  between 
abstainers  and  non-abstainers  is  remarkable,  the  percentage 
of  the  death  rate  to  expected  being  about  fifty  per  cent 
higher  with  non-abstainers  than  with  abstainers.  Surely  it 
is  true  that  "in  the  tug  of  war  between  life  and  death,  drink 
pulls  on  the  graveyard  end." 

Drink's  toll  from  the  prime  of  life 
In  the  vital  statistics  of  Basel,  Switzerland,  for  1892-1906 


20  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

alcohol  is  given  as  one  cause  of  death  in  ninety-one  per 
cent  of  men  forty  to  fifty  years  of  age  dying  of  liver  cirrhosis ; 
in  forty-three  per  cent  of  deaths  from  digestive  diseases;  in 
thirty  per  cent  of  deaths  from  pneumonia;  in  twenty-three 
per  cent  of  deaths  from  diseases  of  the  circulation ;  in  twenty- 
five  per  cent  of  kidney  disease. 

Alcohol  and  suicide 

According  to  the  United  States  Mortality  Reports,  twenty- 
three  per  cent  of  the  suicides  in  the  United  States  are  sup- 
posed to  be  due  to  intemperance.  During  the  years  1900- 
1908  it  is  estimated  that  eleven  thousand,  nine  hundred  and 
eighty-six  persons  killed  themselves  because  of  alcohol. 

Alcohol  and  the  individual 

In  concluding  his  article  on  Alcohol  and  the  Individual, 
Dr.  Henry  S.  Williams  says: 

"So  I  am  bound  to  believe,  on  the  evidence,  that 
if  you  take  alcohol  habitually,  in  any  quantity  what- 
ever, it  is  to  some  extent  a  menace  to  you.  I  am 
bound  to  believe,  in  the  light  of  what  science  has 
revealed:  (i)  that  you  are  tangibly  threatening  the 
physical  structures  of  your  stomach,  your  liver,  your 
kidneys,  your  heart,  your  blood-vessels,  your  nerves, 
your  brain;  (2)  that  you  are  unequivocally  decreas- 
ing your  capacity  for  work  in  any  field,  be  it  physical, 
intellectual,  or  artistic;  (3)  that  you  are  in  some 
measure  lowering  the  grade  of  your  mind,  dulling 
your  higher  aesthetic  sense,  and  taking  the  finer  edge 
off  your  morals;  (4)  that  you  are  distinctly  lessening 
your  chances  of  maintaining  health  and  attaining 
longevity;  and  (5)  that  you  may  be  entailing  upon 
your  descendants  yet  unborn  a  bond  of  incalculable 
misery." 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

What  part  has  ignorance  of  the  effects  of  alcohol  had  in 
the  spread  of  the  drinking  custom? 

Show  how  deceiving  are  the   effects  of  alcohol. 
How   has   science   demonstrated   this    deceptiveness? 


PHYSICAL    EFFECTS    OF    ALCOHOL  21 

Can  the  effect  of  alcohol  be  rightly  described  as  stimulating  ? 

How  is  the  body's  protection  against  infection  impaired  by 
the  use  of  alcohol? 

What  is  the  real  nature  of  the  seeming  stimulation  which 
results  from  drinking  alcoholic  beverages? 

What  is  the  nature  of  alcohol?     How  is  it  produced? 

What  effect  does  drink  have  upon  length  of  life? 

Describe  the  state  of  intoxication. 

What  is  the  result  of  alcohol  upon  the  heart,  the  muscles, 
the  blood,  the  blood-vessels? 

To  what  extent  is  alcohol  a  good  household  remedy? 

How  does  abstinence  influence  longevity? 

Sum  up  the  physical  effects  of  alcohol  under  five  heads. 

In  your  opinion  should  the  laws  that  guard  the  public 
health  make  liquor-selling  a  crime? 

What  would  have  been  the  result  if  the  Amalekites,  after 
having  destroyed  Ziklag,  had  remained  as  free  from  alcohol 
as  are  the  Russians,  German,  French,  and  English  troops  to- 
day? 

How  did  it  happen  that  King  Elah  lost  his  life  so  easily 
at  the  hands  of  Zimri? 

What  is  the  highest  motive  that  one  can  have  in  abstaining 
from  alcoholic  drinks? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

Show  clearly  the  real  nature  of  alcohol. 

Then  point  out  its  effect  upon  the  various  parts  of  the 
body,  especially  the  nerve  centers  and  brain. 

Take  time  thoroughly  to  discuss  the  deceptive  nature  of 
the  feelings  produced  by  alcohol. 

Emphasize  the  effects  of  drinking  beer  and  wine  as  well 
as  the  stronger  beverages. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS   CAN  Do 

Send  to  the  Temperance  Society  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  Shawnee  Building,  Topeka,  Kansas,  for  a  list 


22  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

of  practical  experiments  showing  vividly  the  effects  of  alcohol 
on  health,  which  can  be  laid  before  the  class  and  the  Sunday 
school. 

See  to  it  that  the  moderate  or  occasional  drinkers  among 
the  friends  of  the  class  members  are  supplied  with  facts 
concerning  the  effects  of  moderate  drinking.  Write  the 
Scientific  Temperance  Federation,  23  Trull  Street,  Boston, 
Mass.,  for  literature  for  distribution. 

Have  "Public  Health"  the  subject  to  be  discussed  at  the 
monthly  meeting.  Get  a  Christian  physician  to  show  the 
effects  of  liquor  upon  the  health  of  the  community.  Have 
a  member  appointed  to  look  up  the  local  public  records 
showing  causes  of  deaths  in  our  own  community.  Present 
the  facts  to  the  class. 


LESSON   III 

THE    EFFECT    OF    ALCOHOL    UPON 
RACE  WELFARE 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

And  there  was  a  certain  man  of  Zorah,  of  the 
family  of  the  Danites,  whose  name  was  Manoah ;  and 
his  wife  was  barren,  and  bare  not.  And  the  angel  of 
Jehovah  appeared  unto  the  woman,  and  said  unto  her, 
Behold  now,  them  art  barren,  and  bearest  not;  but 
thou  shalt  conceive,  and  bear  a  son.  Now  therefore 
beware,  I  pray  thee,  and  drink  no  wine  nor  strong 
drink,  and  eat  not  any  unclean  thing:  for  lo,  thou 
shalt  conceive,  and  bear  a  son ;  and  no  razor  shall 
come  upon  his  head ;  for  the  child  shall  be  a  Nazirite 
unto  God  from  the  womb :  and  he  shall  begin  to  save 
Israel  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Philistines.  Then  the 
woman  came  and  told  her  husband,  saying,  A  man 
of  God  came  unto  me,  and  his  countenance  was  like 
the  countenance  of  the  angel  of  God,  very  terrible ; 
and  I  asked  him  not  whence  he  was,  neither  told  he 
me  his  name :  but  he  said  unto  me,  Behold,  thou  shalt 
conceive,  and  bear  a  son;  and  now  drink  no  wine 
nor  strong  drink,  and  eat  not  any  unclean  thing;  for 
the  child  shall  be  a  Nazirite  unto  God  from  the 
womb  to  the  day  of  his  death. — Judges  13.  2-7. 

Woe  unto  them  that  are  mighty  to  drink  wine, 
and  men  of  strength  to  mingle  strong  drink;  that 
justify  the  wicked  for  a  bribe,  and  take  away  the 
righteousness  of  the  righteous  from  him ! 

Therefore  as  the  tongue  of  fire  devoureth  the 
stubble,  and  as  the  dry  grass  sinketh  down  in  the 
flame,  so  their  root  shall  be  as  rottenness,  and  their 
blossom  shall  go  up  as  dust ;  because  they  have 
rejected  the  law  of  Jehovah  of  hosts,  and  despised 
the  word  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel. 

— Isaiah  5.  22-24. 

23 


24  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

THE  LESSON 
The  saloon  is  harmful  to  human  life 

Every  institution  of  society  ultimately  stands  or  falls  by 
its  effect  on  human  life.  The  saloon  will  be  no  exception. 
Already  it  receives  treatment  different  from  that  of  any 
other  selling  agency.  Meat  markets,  grocery  and  dry  goods 
stores  are  not  hedged  about  with  the  restrictions  which  are 
peculiar  to  the  saloon.  The  fundamental  difference  lies  in 
the  fact  that  what  the  saloon  sells  has  possibilities  of  harm 
in  it,  that  it  is  detrimental  rather  than  beneficial  to  human 
life. 

High  value  placed  upon  human  life 

The  valuation  placed  upon  human  life  has  probably  never 
been  as  high  as  now.  It  is  this  that  is  the  inspiration  of 
practically  all  movements  for  peace,  for  social  betterment 
and  justice.  "A  sound  race"  is  the  keynote  of  the  work 
for  social  purity,  for  wisdom  in  marriage,  for  the  study  and 
prevention  of  feeble-mindedness,  epilepsy,  idiocy,  and  insanity. 

Alcohol  and  Race  Degeneracy 

The  relation  of  alcohol  to  race  degeneracy  has  been 
receiving  increasing  attention  in  recent  years.  For  a  long 
time  physicians  have  often  observed  in  the  families  of 
drinkers,  especially  when  the  drink  habit  has  been  conspicuous 
for  more  than  one  generation,  signs  of  physical  or  mental 
weakness.  Efforts  have  been  made  to  ascertain  the  extent 
of  the  interrelation  of  degeneracy  and  alcoholism  by  studying 
the  parentages  of  defective  children,  or,  reversing  the  process, 
by  studying  the  children  of  alcoholic  and  nonalcoholic  parents. 

The  idiot,  the  feeble-minded,  and  the  epileptic 

By  the  first  method,  for  instance,  Dr.  Shuttleworth,  a 
famous  English  specialist,  in  an  article  in  the  British  Journal 


EFFECT    UPON    RACE    WELFARE  25 

of  Inebriety,  January,  1909,  reported  that  of  twelve  hundred 
cases  of  idiocy  and  feeble-mindedness  at  the  Royal  Albert 
Asylum  thirteen  and  one-quarter  per  cent  were  attributed 
to  alcoholic  parentage.  Nineteen  per  cent  of  the  admissions 
for  epilepsy  at  the  Craig  Colony  for  Epileptics,  in  New 
York,  in  1911,  had  alcoholic  heredity,  according  to  the  annual 
report. 

A  heavy  drinker  and  his  children 

A  few  instances  are  on  record  where  to  parents  of  normal 
children  one  defective  child  was  born  known  to  have  had 
its  beginning  when  one  or  both  parents  were  under  the 
influence  of  alcohol.  Dr.  Schweighofer,  in  the  Archives  of 
Internal  Medicine  for  October,  1912,  recorded  a  case  where 
a  normal  woman  married  a  normal  man  and  had  three  normal 
children.  After  his  death,  she  married  a  heavy  drinker,  and 
had  three  children.  One  became  a  drunkard,  one  was  infantile. 
Both  contracted  tuberculosis,  which  had  never  before  been 
in  the  family.  The  third  child  was  a  social  degenerate  and 
drunkard.  By  a  third  marriage,  again  to  a  sober  man,  the 
mother  again  produced  sound  children.  Other  similar  cases 
have  been  reported. 

The     children     of     "abstainers,"     "moderates"     and 
"drinkers" 

Dr.  Laitinen,  of  the  University  of  Helsingfors,  collected 
statistics  for  the  1909  International  Congress  Against  Alcohol- 
ism, as  to  the  vitality  and  physical  condition  of  twenty 
thousand  and  eight  children  in  fifty-eight  hundred  and  forty- 
five  families.  The  families  were  classified  according  to  the 
habits  of  the  parents  as  "Abstaining/'  those  who  had  never 
taken  alcohol,  or  at  least  not  since  marriage;  "Moderate," 
those  who  took  no  more  alcohol  than  corresponds  to  one 
glass  of  four  per  cent  beer  daily;  and  "Drinkers,"  those 
who  drink  daily  more  than  the  equivalent  of  one  glass  of 


26  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

four  per  cent  beer.     The  child  mortality  in  the  three  groups 
ran  as  follows: 

Children  Mis- 
died  carriages 
Per  cent  Per  cent 

Abstaining   families    13-45  I-O7 

Moderates'   families 23.17  5.26 

Drinkers'    families 32.02  7.11 

A  comparison  of  the  weight  and  development  of  the 
living  children 

Comparing  the  weight  and  development  of  the  children 
who  lived,  it  was  found  that  the  average  weight  of  children 
of  abstainers  was  greater  at  birth,  and  that  these  children 
developed  more  rapidly  during  the  first  eight  months  than 
the  children  of  the  "moderates" ;  the  "drinkers' "  children 
were  smallest  at  birth  and  developed  most  slowly. 

The  children  of  drunken  mothers 

W.  C.  Sullivan,  M.D.,  the  English  investigator,  shows  that 
of  six  hundred  children  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  drunken 
mothers,  55.8  per  cent  died  in  infancy  or  were  born  dead,  and 
that  several  of  the  survivors  were  defective.  Many  of  these 
women  had  sober  women  relatives  married  to  sober  husbands. 
The  mortality  among  the  children  of  these  latter  was  23.9  per 
cent. 

The  drunkard's  home 

Unhygienic  conditions  in  the  home  of  the  drinker  may 
undoubtedly  be  a  factor  in  this  higher  child  mortality.  Money 
diverted  to  the  liquor-seller  cannot  be  paid  to  the  landlord 
for  a  suitable  home,  to  the  grocer  for  abundant  nourishing 
food  for  mother  and  children,  to  the  coal  dealer  for  fuel,  to 
the  merchant  for  proper  clothing.  Conditions  may  thus  be 
created  tending  to  child  sickness  and  mortality,  especially 
if  the  mother  is  obliged  to  help  support  the  family  because 
of  the  father's  drinking  habits. 


EFFECT    UPON    RACE    WELFARE  27 

Alcohol  and  nonhuman  animal  life 

But  experiments  on  animal  life  are  free  from  these  com- 
plications. Studies  of  hen's  eggs,  rabbits,  guinea  pigs,  and 
dogs  have  definitely  shown  degenerating  effects  of  alcohol 
under  careful  experiments.  Probably  the  most  conclusive 
evidence  on  this  point  is  afforded  by  the  recent  experiments 
by  Dr.  Charles  R.  Stockard  on  guinea  pigs.  The  young  of 
parents  subjected  to  alcohol,  short  of  intoxication,  were 
compared  with  the  young  of  animals  given  exactly  the  same 
care  except  for  alcohol.  Three  tests  were  made  with  the 
following  results : 

(1)  An  alcoholic  father.     When  the  father  only  was  alco- 
holic, of  twenty-four  matings,  fourteen  gave  no  result  at  all. 
Only    twelve    living    young    were    born.      Seven    soon    died, 
leaving  five  living  and  these  are  runts,  and  excitable  animals. 
All  that  died  "showed  various  nervous  disturbances,  having 
epileptic-like   seizures,  and  in  every  case  died  in  a  state  of 
convulsion.   This  is  commonly  the  fate  of  feeble  and  nervously 
defective  children." 

(2)  An   alcoholic   mother.      When    the    mother    only    was 
alcoholic,   out   of   four   matings,   but   five   young   were   born. 
Only  two  survived.     One  of  these  was  mated  with  an  alco- 
holic.     She   was  killed   by   accident,   but   one   of   her   young 
(which  thus  had  an  alcoholic  father  and  grandmother)    was 
found  to  be  deformed  and  showed  other  signs  of  degeneracy. 

(3)  Alcoholic  parents.     When  both  parents  were  alcoholic 
only  one  living  litter  was  born  of  fourteen  matings.     This 
consisted  of  one  weak  individual,  which  died  in  convulsions 
on  the  sixth  day  after  birth. 

Thus  from  the  alcoholic  families,  forty-two  matings  gave 
only  seven  surviving  young,  of  whom  five  were  runts. 

With  non-alcoholic  parents,  nine  matings  gave  seventeen 
young,  all  surviving  and  all  large,  vigorous,  active  animals 
for  their  age. 

"This  is,  indeed,  a  decided  effect  of  alcohol  on  the  off- 
spring," says  Dr.  Stockard. 


28  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

The  germ  of  life 

The  secret  of  the  harm  wrought  on  posterity  by  the 
alcohol-user  is  believed  by  many  students  to  lie  in  the  effect 
of  alcohol  on  the  cells  in  which  human  life  begins.  These 
germ-cells,  of  which  "the  individual  is  the  trustee,"  are  now 
known  to  be  susceptible  to  certain  chemical  agents  circulating 
in  the  blood.  A  reliable  statement  of  this  fact  may  be  found 
in  Forel's  "Nervous  and  Mental  Hygiene,"  pages  one  hundred 
and  twenty-four  and  two  hundred  and  ten.  The  poisons  of 
lead  and  of  infectious  diseases  may  so  affect  the  germ  plasm 
as  to  cause  lowered  vitality,  with  death  during  infancy, 
imperfect  development  showing  itself  in  convulsions,  epilepsy, 
feeble-mindedness,  and  insanity.  Many  physicians  believe  that 
alcohol  should  be  included  among  the  substances  capable  of 
causing  such  changes  in  the  germ-cell.  It  is  known,  as  already 
shown,  that  in  the  family  of  the  alcoholic  there  is  a  heavier 
percentage  of  premature  births  and  of  infant  mortality.  The 
experiments  with  the  alcoholized  fathers  of  guinea  pigs 
"clearly  demonstrate,"  said  the  experimenter  (Dr.  Stockard), 
"that  the  paternal  germ-cells  may  be  modified  by  chemical 
treatment  (of  the  animal)  to  such  a  degree  that  the  male  will 
beget  abnormal  offspring,  even  though  he  be  mated  with  a 
vigorous  female."  Dr.  Charles  B.  Davenport  and  Dr.  David 
F.  Weeks  in  their  book,  "A  First  Study  of  Inheritance  in 
Epilepsy,"  state  that  there  is  a  "constant  excess  beyond  expec- 
tation of  epileptic  and  feeble-minded  offspring  from  alcoholic 
parents  .  .  .  from  ten  per  cent  to  twenty  per  cent  more 
children  in  any  fraternity  are  defective  than  would  be  were 
it  not  for  alcohol."  It  may  be  said  that  many,  including  the 
authors  just  quoted,  believe  that  alcoholism  itself  may  be  an 
expression  of  defect,  that  persons  with  these  defects  are  in 
turn  more  susceptible  to  alcohol,  thus  possibly  forming  a 
vicious  alcoholic  circle.  Further,  the  use  of  alcohol  often 
seems  to  bring  out  latent  tendencies  to  physical  and  mental 
defects  that  might  never  appear  but  for  this  debilitating  and 
degenerating  habit. 


EFFECT    UPON    RACE    WELFARE  29 

The  dependent,  delinquent,  and  criminal 

The  serious  risk  which  human  welfare  incurs  in  the  use 
of  a  substance  capable  of  increasing  the  number  of  defective 
lives  appears  in  the  fact  that  it  is  now  believed  that  out  of 
these  classes  of  subnormal  persons  come  many  of  the  de- 
pendent, delinquent  criminals,  ne'er-do-wells,  and  immoral 
persons.  This  is  the  opinion  of  the  famous  German  physiciant 
Dr.  Adolf  Frick,  as  stated  in  his  "Einfluss  der  Geistigen 
Getranke  auf  die  Kinder."  The  feeble-minded  children,  for 
instance,  without  self-control,  but  having  the  instincts  of 
appetite  and  maturity,  readily  become  the  victims  of  evil- 
minded  men  and  women  and  perpetuate  their  kind,  starting 
new  lives  which  inevitably  are  a  waste  and  burden  instead 
of  a  strength  and  glory  to  the  human  race. 

Unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation 

It  may  readily  be  admitted  that  the  worst  consequences  of 
parental  drinking  may  not  always  show  themselves  in  the 
first  generation  of  descendants  from  a  drinker,  especially  if 
he  is  of  non-drinking  ancestry,  or  if  his  children  were  born 
before  the  habit  reached  its  climax  in  himself,  or  if  the 
mother  is  free  from  alcoholic  inheritance.  "It  may  even 
require  several  generations,"  said  Professor  Adolf  Frick,  "for 
actual  drunkards  to  appear  in  a  moderate  drinking  family, 
but  then  the  fatal  power  advances  with  giant  strides."  In 
view  of  the  social  conditions  of  the  past,  there  are  probably 
comparatively  few  persons  who  have  a  long  ancestry  of 
abstainers,  so  that  there  is  always  the  possibility  of  precipi- 
tating serious  consequences. 

Protect  human  life  from  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors 

It  is  this  which  constitutes  the  most  serious  and  far-reaching 
fact  of  the  alcohol  problem  of  which  the  saloon  is  a  part. 
Whether,  as  some  believe,  the  alcoholic  habit  in  any  particular 
case  is  the  result  of  an  existing  nervous  defect,  the  known 
facts  of  heredity  demand  that  human  life  should  be  protected 


30  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

at  least  from  the  inducement  to  drink  which  the  saloon 
affords,  and  from  the  constant  appeal  to  drink  which  an 
organized  traffic  is  making  in  endeavoring  to  build  up  its 
business.  The  problem  of  what  to  do  with  the  weak  and  the 
defective  already  existing  is  even  now  almost  overwhelming. 
It  is  the  part  of  prudence  and  wise  "trusteeship"  to  protect 
life  against  even  the  possibility  of  any  further  deterioration 
where  alcohol  may  be  responsible  for  it. 

The  results  of  prohibition 

That  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic  does  offer  this  protec- 
tion of  life  against  such  deterioration  is  the  testimony  of 
experience.  In  a  letter,  replying  to  an  inquiry  for  facts  about 
the  conditions  in  the  homes  in  Kansas,  Professor  William 
A.  McKeever,  of  the  University  of  Kansas,  states: 

"Parents  with  alcoholic  habits  are  practically  un- 
known in  this  State.  I  travel  much  about  the  State 
and  do  not  know  of  a  single  case.  Have  made  special 
inquiry  here  and  can  find  none.  I  wonder  if  you 
can  realize  the  meaning  of  this?" 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

Why  is  human  life  of  value? 

How  far  are  the  enemies  of  the  use  of  liquor  placing  too 
high  a  value  upon  it? 

In  what  respect  is  the  present  generation  responsible  for 
the  future  welfare  of  the  race? 

Why  has  an  adult  who  is  incapable  of  producing  normal 
children  no  moral  right  to  have  offspring? 

Should  a  license  be  granted  to  any  institution  to  interfere 
with  the  welfare  of  the  race? 

What  effect  does  physical  degeneracy  have  upon  moral  and 
intellectual  development? 

To  what  extent  is  it  interfering  with  an  individual's  per- 
sonal liberty  to  prevent  him  from  drinking  that  which  will 
seriously  injure  his  offspring? 


EFFECT    UPON    RACE    WELFARE  31 

What  amount  of  license  revenue  will  repay  the  birth  of  a 
degenerate  child? 

To  what  extent  is  degeneracy  due  to  alcohol? 

How  safe  is  moderate  drinking? 

Why  are  good  homes  important  from  the  standpoint  of 
race  welfare? 

Why  should  the  prospective  mother  of  a  Nazirite  child  be 
free  from  strong  drink? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

Follow  these  three  general  lines  of  thought: 

The  concern  which  all  men  should  feel  for  the  welfare  of 
the  race.  A  God-given  destiny  is  to  be  worked  out.  Human 
life  is  precious. 

Race  welfare  demands  the  birth  of  physically  perfect  chil- 
dren. The  present  generation  is  the  "trustee"  of  this  priceless 
"germ  of  life."  Parenthood  is  the  greatest  of  professions. 
To  safeguard  parenthood  is  a  social  obligation. 

Alcohol  corrupts  the  human  stock.  Its  influence  causes 
degeneracy.  Because  of  alcohol,  future  children  are  damned 
to  physical  inferiority,  deformity,  idiocy,  feeble-mindedness, 
and  premature  death. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS   CAN   Do 

Visit  local  institutions  which  care  for  feeble-minded  or 
other  degenerates,  and  make  reports  to  the  class. 

Have  members  report  concrete  cases  of  the  influence  of 
alcohol  upon  children. 

Arrange  a  publicity  campaign  on  the  effects  of  alcohol. 
In  preparation  for  this  campaign  write  the  Scientific  Tem- 
perance Federation,  23  Trull  Street,  Boston,  Mass.,  or  the 
Poster  Committee,  n  Mason  Street,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  or 
the  American  Issue  Publishing  Company,  Westerville,  Ohio, 
for  samples  and  price  lists  of  posters.  A  poster  campaign 
can  be  made  very  effective  and  the  cost  is  small.  Never  let 
the  church  bulletin  board  stand  idle. 


LESSON   IV 
CRIME  AND  THE   LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

For  their  vine  is  of  the  vine  of  Sodom, 
And  of  the  fields  of  Gomorrah : 
Their  grapes  are  grapes  of  gall, 
Their  clusters  are  bitter: 
Their  wine  is  the  poison  of  serpents, 
And  the  cruel  venom  of  asps. 

— Deuteronomy  32.  32,  33. 

Wine  is  a  mocker,  strong  drink  a  brawler; 
And  whosoever  erreth  thereby  is  not  wise. 

— Proverbs  20.   I. 

Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked :  for  whatso- 
ever a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.  For  he 
that  soweth  unto  his  own  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap 
corruption ;  but  he  that  soweth  unto  the  Spirit  shall 
of  the  Spirit  reap  eternal  life. — Galatians  6.  7,  8. 

Woe  unto  them  that  join  house  to  house,  that  lay 
field  to  field,  till  there  be  no  room,  and  ye  be  made  to 
dwell  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  land !  In  mine  ears 
saith  Jehovah  of  hosts,  Of  a  truth  many  houses  shall 
be  desolate,  even  great  and  fair,  without  inhabitant. 
For  ten  acres  of  vineyard  shall  yield  one  bath,  and 
a  homer  of  seed  shall  yield  but  an  ephah.  Woe  unto 
them  that  rise  up  early  in  the  morning,  that  they  may 
follow  strong  drink;  that  tarry  late  into  the  night, 
till  wine  inflame  them !  And  the  harp  and  the  lute, 
the  tabret  and  the  pipe,  and  wine,  are  in  their  feasts; 
but  they  regard  not  the  work  of  Jehovah,  neither 
have  they  considered  the  operation  of  his  hands. 
Therefore  my  people  are  gone  into  captivity  for  lack 
of  knowledge ;  and  their  honorable  men  are  famished, 
and  their  multitude  are  parched  with  thirst.  There- 
fore Sheol  hath  enlarged  its  desire,  and  opened  its 
32 


CRIME   AND    THE   LIQUOR   TRAFFIC  33 

mouth  without  measure ;  and  their  glory,  and  their 
multitude,  and  their  pomp,  and  he  that  rejoiceth 
among  them,  descend  into  it.  And  the  mean  man  is 
bowed  down,  and  the  great  man  is  humbled,  and  the 
eyes  of  the  lofty  are  humbled:  but  Jehovah  of  hosts 
is  exalted  in  justice,  and  God  the  Holy  One  is  sancti- 
fied in  righteousness.  Then  shall  the  lambs  feed  as 
in  their  pasture,  and  the  waste  places  of  the  fat  ones 
shall  wanderers  eat.  Woe  unto  them  that  draw 
iniquity  with  cords  of  falsehood,  and  sin  as  it  were 
with  a  cart  rope;  that  say,  Let  him  make  speed,  let 
him  hasten  his  work,  that  we  may  see  it;  and  let  the 
counsel  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  draw  nigh  and 
come,  that  we  may  know  it !  Woe  unto  them  that 
call  evil  good,  and  good  evil ;  that  put  darkness  for 
light,  and  light  for  darkness ;  that  put  bitter  for  sweet, 
and  sweet  for  bitter !  Woe  unto  them  that  are  wise 
in  their  own  eyes,  and  prudent  in  their  own  sight ! 
Woe  unto  them  that  are  mighty  to  drink  wine,  and 
men  of  strength  to  mingle  strong  drink;  that  justify 
the  wicked  for  a  bribe,  and  take  away  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  righteous  from  him !  Therefore  as  the 
tongue  of  fire  devoureth  the  stubble,  and  as  the  dry 
grass  sinketh  down  in  the  flame,  so  their  root  shall 
be  as  rottenness  and  their  blossom  shall  go  up  as 
dust;  because  they  have  rejected  the  law  of  Jehovah 
of  hosts,  and  despised  the  word  of  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel. — Isaiah  5.  8-24. 

THE  LESSON 
What  is  crime? 

In  a  broad  sense,  crime  is  defined  as  "some  act  or  omission 
in  respect  to  which  legal  punishment  may  be  inflicted  upon 
the  person  who  is  in  default  whether  by  acting  or  omitting 
to  act."  It  is  an  act  or  omission  injuriously  affecting  the 
whole  community,  prejudicing  public  rights,  which  acts  or 
omissions  are  punishable  by  law.  A  course  of  conduct  is 
frequently  considered  as  "criminal"  which  constitutes  no 
technical  violation  of  law. 

A  "criminal"  act 

While  it  is  true  that  many  acts  which  involve  no  violation 


34  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

of  the  law  are  commonly  regarded  as  "criminal"  in  many 
localities,  it  is  also  true  that  many  technical  violations  of 
law  or  ordinance  cannot  be  said  to  be  criminal  in  their 
character.  Such  matters  as  obstructing  the  highway,  per- 
mitting a  chimney  to  give  forth  excessive  smoke,  speeding 
a  motor,  or  a  breach  of  building  laws,  while  technical  viola- 
tions of  the  law,  cannot  properly  be  termed  as  "criminal" 
acts. 

"Felony"  and  "misdemeanor3' 

In  legal  circles  of  all  civilized  nations  the  term  "crime" 
has  a  much  narrower  sense  and  nearly  corresponds  to  the 
term  "felony,"  punishable  with  death  or  a  term  in  a  penal 
institution  as  distinguished  from  some  offense  referred  to  as 
a  "misdemeanor,"  punishable  with  a  fine  or  imprisonment  in 
a  local  jail.  Legal  writers  distinguish  these  two  classes  of 
offenses  as  mala  in  se  (wrong  in  itself)  as  against  mala 
prohiba  (wrong  prohibited). 

Criminal  and  civil  law 

For  the  most  part,  offenses  against  the  individual  are  now 
considered  as  offenses  against  the  sovereign.  In  America, 
the  people  are  the  sovereign  power,  so  prosecutions  for  both 
crimes  and  misdemeanors  are  brought  by  and  in  the  name  of 
the  people.  In  many  cases,  criminal  and  civil  law  overlap  so 
that  while  the  people  prosecute  a  man  for  murder,  the 
victim's  widow  may  also  sue  the  same  man  for  damages. 
The  wrong  inflicted  is  described  by  the  legal  term  "tort." 
In  most  States,  as  a  matter  of  "torts,"  the  wife  of  the 
inebriate  may  bring  damage  suit  against  the  liquor  dealer  for 
depriving  her  of  her  support  by  debauching  her  bread-winner. 

The  liquor  traffic  promotes  crime 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  wherever  alcoholic 
liquor  is  sold  and  used  in  any  considerable  degree  for 
beverage  purposes  that  a  large  volume  of  crime  and  misde- 


CRIME   AND    THE   LIQUOR   TRAFFIC  35 

meanors,  as  well  as  offenses  termed  torts,  result  therefrom. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  legislation  throughout  the  world 
seeking  to  curtail  or  regulate  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors 
is  based  upon  this  common  knowledge :  that  the  beverage  use 
of  intoxicants  naturally  leads  to  crime  and  disorder.  Laws 
against  selling  liquor  at  late  hours  of  night,  laws  against 
selling  liquor  in  places  remote  from  police  protection,  laws 
forbidding  the  selling  of  liquor-  on  legal  holidays,  are  all 
based  on  the  theory  that  the  liquor  traffic  promotes  crime, 
and  their  purpose  is  to  reduce  such  crime  to  the  lowest 
practicable  minimum.  Laws  against  selling  liquor  to  a  drunken 
man  are  based  on  the  probability  that  additional  liquor  may 
lead  him  to  commit  some  crime.  Laws  against  selling  liquor 
to  Indians  arise  from  the  fear  that  such  liquor  may  lead  to 
crimes,  especially  crimes  of  violence.  Laws  authorizing 
mayors  of  cities  to  close  all  saloons  in  times  of  riots  or  on 
occasions  of  great  disasters  are  all  based  on  the  theory  that 
the  sale  of  liquor  at  such  times  is  especially  provocative  of 
further  violence  and  crime. 

Commerce  in  useful  things 

All  legislation,  State,  national,  and  local,  respecting  com- 
merce in  useful  things  is  based  on  the  desire  to  promote 
and  encourage  such  traffic.  The  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor  has  been  established  to  promote  and  encourage 
commerce  and  trade  in  useful  products  and  manufactures. 
Consular  and  diplomatic  agents  are  scattered  throughout  the 
world  to  promote  such  traffic. 

Liquor  traffic  not  useful 

All  legislation  respecting  the  liquor  traffic,  on  the  contrary, 
national,  State,  and  local,  is  based  upon  the  proposition  that 
the  traffic  promotes  disorder,  that  it  is  productive  of  crime, 
and  must  be  handicapped  and  curtailed.  Even  the  license 
laws  promoted  by  the  United  States  Brewers'  Association, 
the  Model  License  League,  and  kindred  organizations  of 


36  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

persons  engaged  in  the  traffic  itself,  spring  from  the  same 
basic  principles — that  the  traffic  is  productive  of  crime,  and 
the  public  good  therefore  requires  that  it  be  curtailed,  -that 
it  be  surrounded  by  such  restrictions  and  limitations  as  will 
reduce  these  evils  to  the  lowest  possible  minimum. 

Two  classes  of  legislation 

Anyone  can  readily  discern  the  underlying  distinction  be- 
tween these  two  classes  of  legislation  by  a  mental  attempt  to 
imagine  the  current  liquor  laws  as  being  applied  to  any  item 
found  in  a  common  grocery.  A  law  forbidding  the  selling 
of  potatoes  to  minors,  a  law  forbidding  the  selling  of  fruit 
to  one  who  is  excessively  fond  of  fruit,  a  law  forbidding  the 
selling  of  bananas  to  one  who  had  just  eaten  a  lot  of  bananas, 
a  law  forbidding  the  selling  of  flour  after  ten  o'clock  at 
night,  laws  compelling  grocers  to  give  bonds  that  their  salt 
will  not  lead  to  violence  and  disorder — any  such  legislation 
in  reality  applied  to  any  such  item  would  create  laughter  in 
a  morgue.  Yet  such  laws  are  seriously  considered  and  more 
or  less  enforced  as  to  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors,  simply 
because  they  are  based  upon  the  common  desire  to  restrain 
the  traffic,  to  reduce  the  liquor  consumption  to  the  lowest 
practicable  minimum. 

The  meaning  of  the  license  policy 

So  far,  the  underlying  reasons  for  license  laws  and  pro- 
hibition laws  are  identical.  Both  are  based  on  a  desire  to 
eliminate  the  traffic  so  far  as  practicable.  It  is  desired  to 
eliminate  to  the  limit  this  traffic  because  of  the  common 
knowledge  that  it  promotes  crime,  distress,  disorder,  and 
expense  to  the  tax-paying  community.  Those  promoting  the 
license  policy  recognize  frankly  that  the  saloon  is  a  great 
source  of  crime,  that  it  should  be  curtailed,  restricted,  regu- 
lated so  as  to  reduce  this  factor  to  a  minimum.  It  is  urged 
that  the  traffic  cannot  be  wholly  eliminated,  and  that  it  is 
best  to  allow  it  to  continue  under  strict  regulation  and  levy 


CRIME   AND    THE   LIQUOR   TRAFFIC  37 

upon  it  heavy  taxes  or  license  fees  so  as  to  compensate  the 
community,  at  least  in  part,  for  the  expense  attending  the 
disorder,  poverty,  and  crime  growing  out  of  the  business. 
Why  should  not  the  traffic  be  compelled  to  bear  some  of  the 
burden  heaped  upon  the  taxpayers  by  virtue  of  the  liquor- 
selling  and  its  resulting  crime? 

Prohibition  of  the  saloon 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  would  prohibit  the  traffic 
freely  admit  that  prohibition  of  the  traffic  will  not  totally 
eliminate  drink  or  the  clandestine  traffic.  It  is  urged  that 
prohibition  of  the  saloon  should  not  be  expected  to  accom- 
plish what  no  prohibition  law  in  the  history  of  the  world 
has  ever  accomplished.  Murder  and  theft  have  been  pro- 
hibited by  law,  which  law  has  been  overwhelmingly  supported 
by  public  opinion  since  the  dawn  of  history;  and  yet  the 
newspapers  now  chronicle  violations  of  these  laws  daily  all 
over  the  world. 

Why  not  license  murder? 

It  would  only  subject  man  to  ridicule  to  make  the  same 
proposition  regarding  theft  and  murder  that  is  made  re- 
garding the  liquor  traffic.  Such  crimes  have  always  been 
committed  and  the  community  might  as  well  secure  some 
revenue  from  it  in  order  to  pay  the  expense  of  criminal  pro- 
ceedings on  account  thereof !  But  every  thoughtful  man 
knows  that  vastly  less  murders  and  thefts  are  committed 
under  a  prohibition  policy  than  would  be  committed  under 
a  license  regime. 

The  saloon  responsible  for  crime 

This  principle  is  not  disputed  as  to  theft,  murder,  or  any- 
thing else  except  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors,  and  it  is 
disputed  in  this  respect  chiefly  by  the  liquor  dealers  them- 
selves or  by  persons  who  profit  by  the  traffic.  In  setting 
forth  its  claims,  the  saloon  usually  puts  forth  as  spokesmen 


38  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

renters  of  saloon  property,  criminal  lawyers  who  thrive  on 
the  saloon  business,  business  men  who  sell  their  goods  largely 
to  saloons,  coopers,  bottlemakers,  ice  men,  cigarmakers,  brass 
manufacturers,  and  the  like.  The  crooked  politician  who 
seeks  office  through  the  saloon  votes  is  diligent  in  urging 
theories  of  this  sort,  yet  none  of  these  seriously  combat  the 
statement  that  the  saloon  is  largely  responsible  for  crime. 

Legitimate  uses  of  alcohol 

Those  who  would  prohibit  the  traffic  in  intoxicants  for 
beverage  purposes  would  not  interfere  with,  but  would  en- 
courage, the  use  of  alcohol  for  mechanical,  industrial,  manu- 
facturing, and  scientific  purposes.  They  demand  only  that 
the  State  take  precisely  the  same  course  toward  alcohol  as 
is  taken  toward  impure  meat  and  poisonous  drugs.  They 
would  encourage  the  use  of  spoiled  meat  for  the  manu- 
facture of  soap,  fertilizer,  and  for  other  useful  purposes,  but 
would  prohibit  the  sale  for  eating  purposes.  Intoxicants, 
being  far  more  dangerous  to  the  public  health  and  morals, 
should  stand  on  precisely  the  same  footing  before  the  law. 

Difficulty  in  determining  percentage 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  conceded  that  the  sale  of  intoxicants 
results  in  a  sufficient  amount  of  crime  to  warrant  the 
restraining  hand  of  the  law,  the  exact  percentage  of  such 
crime  caused  by  the  saloon  is  only  a  matter  of  academic 
interest.  Just  what  this  percentage  may  be  is  largely  a  matter 
of  conjecture,  and  investigations  into  this  subject  vary  with 
the  viewpoint  and  the  methods  of  the  investigator.  As  a 
conspicuous  example,  Harry  K.  Thaw,  while  inflamed  with 
drink,  shot  and  killed  Stanford  White.  Thaw  had  ample 
opportunity  to  kill  White  after  he  knew  of  the  grievance  and 
when  he  was  sober.  But  not  until  he  became  heated  with 
wine  did  he  fire  the  fatal  bullet.  In  order  to  escape  the 
electric  chair,  his  attorneys  proved  him  to  be  insane.  They 
knew  he  was  not  so  much  insane  as  intoxicated. 


CRIME   AND    THE   LIQUOR   TRAFFIC  39 

The  reputed  cause  of  this  shooting  might  be  variously  set 
down  according  to  the  notion  of  the  investigator.  One  might 
attribute  it  to  insanity;  another  might  attribute  it  to  tem- 
porary passion  at  a  fancied  or  real  wrong;  another  might 
properly  say  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  wine  which  inflamed 
Thaw  on  the  fatal  night,  the  tragedy  would  never  have 
happened. 

Approximate  per  cent 

Factors  of  this  sort  enter  into  most  studies  of  the  per- 
centage of  crime  due  to  the  saloon,  which  naturally  lead  to 
varied  results.  It  is  very  rare,  however,  that  an  experienced 
officer  of  the  law  whose  life  is  devoted  to  dealing  with 
criminals  will  place  the  percentage  .due  to  drink  at  less  than 
fifty  per  cent.  The  great  majority  of  such  men  will  place 
the  proportion  at  from  seventy-five  to  ninety  per  cent.  Some 
will  place  it  even  higher.  One  or  two  concrete  illustrations 
show  the  trend. 

In  addressing  naval  cadets,  Emperor  William  II  of  Ger- 
many said :  "I  can  assure  you  that  during  the  twenty-two 
years  of  my  reign,  I  have  made  the  observation  that  the 
greater  number  of  criminal  cases  submitted  to  me  for  adjudi- 
cation, up  to  nine  tenths,  are  traceable  to  the  consequences 
of  alcohol." 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  Superintendent  of  the  Walnut  Lodge 
Hospital,  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  says:  "All  authorities  agree 
that  from  seventy-five  to  ninety  per  cent  of  all  criminality  is 
caused  by  the  abuse  of  alcohol." 

In  Sweden,  the  subject  of  the  intimate  relation  between 
crime  and  alcohol  was  seen  to  be  of  such  vast  importance 
that  it  was  made  a  matter  of  investigation  by  the  State  in 
connection  with  the  medical  profession.  The  number  of  cases 
investigated  was  twenty-four  thousand  three  hundred  and 
ninety-eight.  Of  this  number,  seventeen  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  seventy-four,  that  is,  71.2  per  cent,  connected  their 
crime  with  the  use  of  alcohol. 


40  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

The  case  of  San  Francisco 

In  places  where  the  taking  of  alcohol  is  prohibited  the 
number  of  arrests  for  crime  falls  at  once.  This  was  strik- 
ingly seen  during  the  terrible  earthquake  at  San  Francisco, 
when  Mayor  Schmitz  "issued  an  order  forbidding  any  person 
to  sell,  give  away,  or  drink  alcoholic  liquors.  The  result  was 
that  with  thousands  of  homeless  people  in  the  city  and  thou- 
sands of  visitors  coming  into  the  city,  the  arrests  from  April 
20  to  July  4,  1906,  were  from  two  to  six  per  day.  In  all  the 
turmoil  and  the  confusion  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of  home- 
less people,  and  the  influx  of  thousands  of  visitors,  perfect 
order  prevailed,  and  the  police  force,  according  to  their  own 
statement,  had  nothing  to  do.  .  .  .  The  first  Monday  after 
the  reopening  of  the  saloon  in  San  Francisco  (July  9,  1906) 
there  were  seventy-four  victims  before  the  police  courts,  as 
against  five  on  the  previous  Monday;  seventy-two  on  Friday, 
as  against  two  on  the  previous  Friday;  and  the  second  Mon- 
day one  hundred  and  thirteen,  as  against  three  or  four  the 
second  Monday  before  reopening.  .  .  .  Extra  policemen  were 
asked  to  protect  the  defenseless  refugee  women  and  children, 
and  extra  guards  were  stationed  at  the  camps  to  protect  the 
homeless." 

The  Webb  law 

The  Webb  Law,  enacted  by  Congress  in  1913,  has  taken 
from  the  liquor  dealers  their  principal  means  of  selling  the 
licensed  saloon  product  in  no-license  communities,  and  pro- 
hibition is  rapidly  becoming  more  and  more  effective  by 
reason  thereof.  The  entire  logic  of  the  situation  calls  for 
ultimate  national  prohibition,  for  which  an  active  campaign 
is  now  under  way. 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

Can  liquor-selling  for  beverage  purposes  be  justly  looked 
upon  as  injuriously  affecting  the  community? 


CRIME   AND    THE    LIQUOR    TRAFFIC  41 

Does  it  prejudice  public  rights? 

May  we  consider  it  a  "felony"  ? 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  saloon,  what  is  the  significance 
of  the  fact  that  in  America  the  people  are  the  sovereign? 

Why  is  it  that  all  legislation  seeks  to  curtail  or  regulate 
the  liquor  traffic  rather  than  promote  and  protect  it? 

Do  men  engaged  in  the  saloon  business  generally  agree  that 
their  business  is  productive  of  crime? 

What  else  can  their  advocacy  of  license  measures  mean? 

Why  should  it  be  silly  to  enact  a  law  forbidding  the  sale 
of  potatoes  to  minors? 

Can  the  liquor  traffic  be  wholly  eliminated  by  legal  enact- 
ment? 

If  not,  does  it  follow  that  it  should  be  licensed? 

Why  not  license,  rather  than  prohibit,  murder? 

How  much  revenue  was  collected  on  the  liquor  drunk  by 
Thaw  before  he  killed  White?  What  did  it  finally  cost  the 
government? 

In  Germany,  what  is  the  relation  between  alcohol  and  crime  ? 

In  what  sense  is  wine  a  mocker? 

What  woes  follow  inevitably  upon  the  use  of  strong  drink? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

Bring  out  clearly  the  meaning  of  "crime." 

Show  that  the  license  system  is  based  upon  the  general 
assumption  that  the  saloon  causes  crime  and  that  therefore 
it  should  help  carry  this  burden  rather  than  let  the  taxpayer 
do  it. 

Lead  the  class  to  the  conclusion  that  the  saloon  is  a 
criminal  institution  and  therefore  should  not  be  licensed. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS   CAN  Do 

Urge  citizens  to  join  in  this  careful  study  of  the  liquor 
traffic. 

Collect  local  information  from  the  local  Court  and  Police 
Records  showing  the  relation  of  the  saloon  to  crime  and  the 


42  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

ultimate  cost  of  crime  in  excess  of  the  revenue  from  the 
liquor  business. 

Arrange  with  the  pastor  for  an  anti-saloon  Sunday  evening 
mass  meeting. 

Have  a  member  of  the  class  take  a  daily  newspaper  and, 
remembering  that  fifty  per  cent  of  the  crime  is  caused  by 
drink,  cut  out  all  of  those  parts  of  the  paper  that  tell  about 
the  liquor  business  and  its  results.  Then  hold  the  paper  up 
before  the  class. 


LESSON   V 

THE  SALOON  AND  THE 
SOCIAL  EVIL 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

Owe  no  man  anything,  save  to  love  one  another : 
for  he  that  loveth  his  neighbor  hath  fulfilled  the  law. 
For  this,  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery,  Thou  shall 
not  kill,  Thou  shalt  not  steal,  Thou  shalt  not  covet, 
and  if  there  be  any  other  commandment,  it  is  summed 
up  in  this  word,  namely,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.  Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his  neighbor :  love 
therefore  is  the  fulfillment  of  the  law. 

And  this,  knowing  the  season,  that  already  it  is 
time  for  you  to  awake  out  of  sleep :  for  now  is 
salvation  nearer  to  us  than  when  we  first  believed. 
The  night  is  far  spent,  and  the  day  is  at  hand :  let 
us  therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and  let 
us  put  on  the  armor  of  light.  Let  us  walk  becom- 
ingly, as  in  the  day;  not  in  reveling  and  drunkenness, 
not  in  chambering  and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and 
jealousy.  But  put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
make  not  provision  for  the  flesh,  to  fulfill  the  lusts 
thereof. — Romans  13.  8-14. 

THE  LESSON 
The  presence  of  the  parental  instinct 

In  every  normal  individual  there  are  animal  instincts  and 
impulses  that  must  be  regulated  before  moral  conduct  is 
possible.  Self-control  means  the  regulation  of  these  inner 
forces  that  go  to  make  up  the  living,  active  self.  It  is 
necessary  first  to  have  in  mind  an  ideal  of  right  behavior 
and  then  to  make  the  innate  impulses  conform  thereto.  The 
parental  instinct  with  its  accompanying  sexual  emotions  and 
social  interests  is  one  of  the  most  fundamental  and  powerful 

43 


44  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

of  these  life  forces.  It  comes  to  maturity  during  adolescence 
and  it  is  during  these  critical  years  that  self-control  is  most 
imperative.  When  properly  directed  these  natural  forces  lead 
on  to  the  most  refined  and  exalted  experience  of  life.  But 
they  are  capable  of  being  prostituted  to  the  most  ignoble  ends. 

The  first  step  in  the  loss  of  virtue 

But  the  use  of  alcohol  leads  directly  and  inevitably  to  the 
disintegration  of  these  higher  centers  of  control.  Thus  pas- 
sions come  to  expression  without  restraint.  The  ones  natu- 
rally most  persistent  and  powerful  crowd  the  others  aside. 
During  youth  and  early  manhood  and  womanhood  this 
parental  instinct — to  which  the  Creator  has  given  enough 
vitality  to  cause  a  parent  to  watch  over  and  care  for  a  child 
during  twenty  years  of  immaturity — and  its  accompanying 
emotions  are  especially  vigorous.  The  first  mild  stage  of 
intoxication,  in  which  free  play  is  given  to  the  emotions,  is 
thus  far  more  dangerous  than  is  ordinarily  supposed.  It  is 
probable  that  in  the  United  States  and  Europe  the  first  glass 
has  been  to  thousands  of  fallen  women  the  first  step  in  the 
direction  of  loss  of  virtue. 

Liquor  sold  in  dance  halls 

In  a  carefully  prepared  letter  dated  October  16,  1913,  Mrs. 
Joseph  Tilton  Bowen,  President  of  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  of  Chicago,  writes : 

"I  do  not  know  whether  you  are  at  all  familiar 
with  the  investigation  made  by  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  of  Chicago  in  regard  to  these  dance  halls. 
The  Association  found  that  the  most  popular  attrac- 
tion for  young  people  in  Chicago  is  the  dance  hall,  as 
dancing  affords  an  outlet  for  the  emotions  of  youth 
and  is  a  safety  valve  for  its  surplus  energy. 

"The  Association  investigated  three  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  dance  halls.  It  found  that  one  hundred 
and  ninety  had  saloons  connected  directly  with  the 
halls;  that  liquor  was  sold  in  two  hundred  and  forty 
out  of  the  three  hundred  and  twenty-eight;  that  the 


THE  SALOON  AND  THE  SOCIAL  EVIL         45 

law  forbidding  the  sale  of  liquor  to  minors  was 
violated  in  one  hundred  and  forty-six.  It  also  found 
that  eighty-six  thousand  young  people  attended  these 
dance  halls  on  Wednesdays,  Saturdays,  and  Sundays 

the  evenings  when  the  dances  are  generally  held — 

and  that  the  majority  of  the  boys  were  between  six- 
teen and  eighteen  years  of  age  and  the  girls  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen. 

"In  the  two  hundred  and  forty  halls  where  liquor 
was  sold,  practically  all  the  boys  showed  signs  of 
intoxication  by  twelve  o'clock,  possibly  because  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  get  a  drink  of  water  in  these 
halls.  The  conditions  existing  in  many  of  the  dance 
halls  and  adjoining  saloons  transform  the  innocent 
desire  for  dancing  and  social  enjoyment  into  drunken- 
ness, vice,  and  debauchery.  Saloon  keepers  and  pros- 
titutes are  in  many  cases  the  only  chaperons,  and 
in  a  majority  of  the  places  even  the  young  girls  and 
boys  are  plied  with  alcohol  and  with  the  suggestion 
of  vice  until  dances  cease  to  be  recreation  and  become 
flagrant  immorality. 

"The  dance-hall  keeper  lives  and  thrives  by  the  sale 
of  liquor;  consequently,  the  dances  are  short — four 
to  five  minutes — and  the  intermissions  long — fifteen 
to  twenty  minutes.  In  the  halls  where  liquor  is  not 
sold  the  intermissions  are  short  and  the  dances  long. 
Is  not  this  an  argument  for  divorcing  the  sale  of 
liquor  from  the  dance  halls?" 

A  deplorable  use  of  alcohol 

God  has  given  to  every  normal  man  and  woman  adequate 
self-restraint  and  safety  from  ordinary  temptation.  Those 
who  are  interested  in  the  financial  profits  that  may  be 
obtained  from  the  increase  of  the  social  evil  know  this  to  be 
true.  And  so  alcoholic  drinks  are  deliberately  used  "to 
poison  the  mind  and  conscience  in  order  to  make  it  easy  to 
commit  crime,  particularly  immoralities  of  a  sexual  nature." 

Dr.  J.  M.  Shaller,  of  Denver,  says : 

"Probably  the  most  deplorable  use  to  which  alcohol 
is  put  is  its  employment  as  a  means  to  ruin  girls.  If 
it  were  not  a  narcotic  poison  it  would  not  and  could 
not  be  used  for  this  purpose.  It  is  not  necessary  to 


46  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

go  into  details  as  to  the  many  young  girls  who  lose 
their  virtue  by  first  being  poisoned  by  champagne. 
It  is  impossible  to  lead  many  women  astray  without 
the  use  of  liquors." 

A  noted  lady  physician  in  the  Royal  Free  Hospital  of 
London,  says : 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  most  of  the  women  who 
compose  that  sad  army  of  the  fallen  have  reached  this 
state  either  because  they  were  intemperate,  or  have 
become  intemperate  from  the  exigencies  of  their 
miserable  life.  Many  girls  owe  their  first  fall  from 
virtue  to  the  casual  glass  of  fiery,  unsound  wine  or 
spirit  given  to  them  as  a  treat  on  some  bank  holiday 
or  other  convivial  occasion." 

Alcoholic  liquors  and  morality 

According  to  the  1909  Report  of  the  Inspector  under  the 
Inebriate  Acts  (Great  Britain)  on  eight  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  immoral  women  in  British  reformatories,  forty  per  cent 
of  the  immorality  was  found  to  be  due  solely  to  drink.  Dr. 
Sanger  of  Blackwell's  Island  found  that  out  of  two  thousand 
fallen  women  82.5  per  cent  were  addicted  to  drink;  46.5  per 
cent  had  drinking  mothers;  61.5  per  cent  had  drinking  fathers. 

The  saloon  and  commercialised  prostitution 

In  the  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  "Commission  for  the 
Investigation  of  the  White  Slave  Traffic,  So  Called,"  it  is 
stated  that  "in  the  larger  cities  of  Massachusetts  the  most 
flagrant  and  open  expression  of  the  commercialized  aspect  of 
prostitution  is  in  connection  with  certain  cafes  and  saloons. 
These  places  are  known  to  be  very  profitable  from  a  com- 
mercial point  of  view.  The  reason  for  their  existence  is  the 
profit  from  the  sale  of  alcoholic  liquor  to  the  prospective 
customers  of  the  prostitutes." 

Modern  life  and  customs 

The  shrewd,  practical,  and  insidious  aggressiveness  of  these 


THE   SALOON   AND   THE   SOCIAL  EVIL         4? 

vice-producing  liquor  sellers  is  far  more  destructive  now  than 
it  would  have  been  in  the  earlier  days  of  our  nation's  history. 
The  conditions  under  which  their  business  is  carried  on 
make  success  relatively  easy.  "The  changes  in  habits  and 
customs  brought  about  by  modern  industries  and  modern 
urban  life  must  be  recognized.  In  former  times  girls  worked 
at  home  under  their  mothers'  watchful  eyes,  and  seldom  went 
abroad  unless  accompanied  by  women  of  mature  years.  Chil- 
dren were  held  in  strict  discipline.  The  majority  of  families 
lived  in  small  communities,  and  boys  and  girls  helped  on 
the  farm,  in  the  household,  and  in  other  home  industries. 
Until  late  adolescence,  when  character  and  habits  were 
formed,  children  selected  their  associates  and  found  their 
interests  and  recreations  in  the  home,  the  church,  and  the 
neighborhood,  under  the  watchful  eyes  of  their  parents.  Reli- 
gion was  a  controlling  influence  over  conduct. 

"Present  conditions  are  vastly  different.  Modern  invention 
and  business  methods  have  transferred  industry  and  its 
products  from  the  home  to  the  factory,  the  big  store  and 
the  office.  The  great  majority  of  our  people  live  in  large 
towns  and  cities.  Young  people  work,  and  in  many  instances 
are  obliged  to  live,  away  from  home.  The  early  economic 
independence  of  working  girls  brings  temptations,  and  makes 
them  intolerant  of  restraint.  It  has  become  the  custom  of 
young  women  to  go  about  freely,  unaccompanied.  Our  youth 
of  both  sexes  are  accorded  great  freedom  in  the  pursuit  of 
pleasures/'  It  is  under  such  economic  and  social  customs  as 
these  that  the  social  evil  has  grown  to  be  one  of  the  most, 
if  not  the  most,  dangerous  menace  to  American  society. 

Local  authorities  inert 

After  carefully  investigating  the  relation  between  cafes 
and  saloons  and  the  white  slave  traffic,  the  Commission 
declared : 

"It  is  not  easy  to  understand  why  the  many  im- 
moral cafes  and  saloons,  openly  and  impudently  used 


48  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

nightly  and  almost  solely  for  the  bargaining  places  of 
prostitutes  and  their  customers,  are  allowed  to  exist 
in  every  city  of  any  size  in  the  State.  An  officer  of 
the  law  not  known  to  the  habitues  in  any  one  house 
could  obtain  evidence  which  would  justify  the  per- 
manent closing  of  any  one  of  these  places  by  the 
licensing  authorities. 

"The  separate  booths,  especially  with  drawn  cur- 
tains, in  cafes,  restaurants,  and  saloons,  should  be 
absolutely  forbidden. 

"It  is  within  the  power  of  local  licensing  authorities 
to  remedy  this  evil.  There  should  be  some  definitely 
constituted  State  authority  charged  with  the  responsi- 
bility of  securing  action  if  the  local  authorities  are 
inert." 

The  social  evil  and  the  saloon 

In  the  Report  of  the  Vice  Commission  of  Chicago  on  the 
Social  Evil  in  Chicago,  there  occurs  the  following  statement: 

"In  the  Commission's  consideration  and  investiga- 
tion of  the  Social  Evil,  it  found  that  the  most  con- 
spicuous and  important  element  in  connection  with 
the  same,  next  to  the  house  of  prostitution  itself,  was 
the  saloon,  and  the  most  important  financial  interest, 
next  to  the  business  of  prostitution,  was  the  liquor 
business.  As  a  contributory  influence  to  immorality 
and  the  business  of  prostitution  there  is  no  interest 
so  dangerous  and  so  powerful  in  the  City  of  Chicago. 
The  Brewery  Companies,  the  Liquor  Dealers'  Pro- 
tective Association  of  Illinois,  and  the  Wholesale 
Liquor  Dealers'  Association  have  all  gone  on  record 
as  in  favor  of  the  elimination  of  the  sale  of  liquor 
in  connection  with  prostitution." 

Social  evil  encouraged  in  saloons 

This  Commission  continues  its  report  by  showing  that 
the  corrupters  of  society  are  protected  by  liquor  interests. 
"In  spite  of  this  fact  hundreds  of  prostitutes  (nine  hundred 
and  twenty-eight  counted  by  the  Commission  investigators) 
are  permitted  and  encouraged  in  no  less  than  two  hundred 
and  thirty-six  saloons,  which  were  investigated  by  the  Com- 


THE  SALOON  AND  THE  SOCIAL  EVIL         49 

mission.  Many  of  these  disorderly  saloons  are  under  the 
control  of  brewery  companies  as  will  be  seen  later  in  the 
report.  These  saloons  are  frequented  by  immoral  women  who 
openly  solicit  for  drinks  and  for  immoral  purposes  and  re- 
ceive the  protection  of  the  saloon  keepers  and  interests." 

Separation  of  the  saloon  and  social  evil 

The  members  of  the  Commission  gave  it  as  their  judg- 
ment that  in  the  interest  of  the  suppression  of  the  social 
evil,  its  connection  with  the  drinking  places  should  be 
severed : 

"The  Commission  is  strongly  convinced  that  there 
should  be  immediate  and  complete  separation  of  the 
saloon  and  the  social  evil  and  that  no  house  of  assig- 
nation or  prostitution  or  rooms  above  or  adjacent 
should  be  allowed  in  connection  with  a  saloon. 

"Bawdy  houses  found  by  the  Commission  were 
appalling  enough,  but  the  abuse  of  liquor-selling  privi- 
leges is  equal  in  viciousness  through  its  open  and 
alluring  flaunting  of  vice  and  degeneracy,  and  in  its 
destruction  of  the  moral  character  of  men  who  fre- 
quent the  saloon  primarily  for  drink  only." 

The  men  higher  up 

It  is  not  the  saloon  keeper  and  the  cafe  proprietor  alone 
who  are  responsible  for  this  deliberate  use  of  liquor  for 
shameful  purposes.  The  men  higher  up  in  the  liquor  busi- 
ness are  known  to  be  financially  interested  in  such  resorts. 
The  report  of  the  Chicago  Vice  Commission  shows  that 
"some  of  the  disorderly  saloons  are  under  the  control  or 
favor  of  certain  brewers."  "An  investigation  with  reference 
to  two  hundred  and  thirty-six  disorderly  saloons  shows  that 
representatives  of  fourteen  brewing  companies  are  on  the 
surety  bonds  for  sixty-three  of  these  saloons.  In  addition 
there  are  a  number  of  individuals  on  the  surety  bonds  for 
other  disorderly  saloons  who  are  also  connected  with  brewing 
companies  but  are  not  given  as  being  representatives." 


50  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

Liquor  advertisements 

In  a  well-known  southern  city,  which  is  notorious  because 
of  the  prevalence  of  the  social  evil,  a  pamphlet  is  published, 
giving  information  which  makes  it  very  easy  for  the  stranger 
or  uninitiated  to  find  his  way  to  moral  death.  This  book  is 
distributed  in  a  certain  saloon  conveniently  located,  that  is, 
near  to  the  most  immoral  section  of  the  city.  "The  directory, 
plain  and  formal,  runs  down  the  right-hand  pages.  On  the 
left-hand  pages  are  advertisements.  The  first  twenty-five 
advertising  pages,"  writes  Will  Irwin  in  Collier's  Weekly, 
February,  1908,  "set  forth  the  virtues  of  Anheuser-Busch  beer, 
I.  W.  Harper  Rye  Whiskey,  and  other  liquors.  For  the 
rest  of  the  way  the  advertisements  are  formal  'write-ups'  of 
certain  women  in  the  quarter.  In  this  mute  book  the  saloon 
and  vice  proclaim  their  naked  partnership." 

Conclusion 

The  conclusion  is  unmistakable.  That  the  social  evil  has 
reached  such  alarming  proportions  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
God-given  instincts  and  impulses  are  not  being  subjected  to 
normal  moral  control.  The  most  prolific  cause  of  this  lack 
of  self-restraint  is  alcohol  taken  in  the  form  of  various 
kinds  of  beverages.  Places  where  liquor  is  sold — the  saloon, 
the  drinking  cafe,  and  the  dance  hall — have  come  to  be 
inseparably  connected  with  this  form  of  immorality.  It  is 
while  in  such  places  that  the  higher  centers  of  moral  control 
become  dissipated.  Saloons  are  used  deliberately  to  foster 
the  evil  in  its  most  degraded  form.  The  easy  and  most 
frequented  road  to  loss  of  virtue  is  the  social  glass.  The 
habit  of  using  intoxicating  liquors  leads  to  the  habit  of 
social  evil. 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

Which  of  the  human  instincts  becomes  perverted  in  the 
social  evil? 

What  is  usually  the  first  step  toward  loss  of  virtue? 


THE  SALOON  AND  THE  SOCIAL  EVIL         51 

Is  society  responsible  for  the  protection  of  young  people 
from  social  temptation?  Why? 

What  is  the  danger  when  liquor  is  sold  in  dance  halls? 

What  motive  leads  men  and  women  to  sell  alcoholic  drinks 
to  reduce  the  moral  self-control  of  young  people? 

What  is  the  opinion  of  the  Chicago  Vice  Commission 
regarding  the  social  aspect  of  the  saloon? 

How  are  saloon  keepers  in  this  deplorable  business  pro- 
tected? 

In  order  to  get  rid  of  the  social  evil,  what  must  be  done 
with  the  saloon  and  liquor-selling  cafe? 

Where  in  Massachusetts  have  the  most  flagrant  expressions 
of  commercialized  vice  been  found? 

How  is  it  that  social  temptations  are  more  apt  to  lead  to 
sin  under  modern  conditions  than  in  the  early  history  of 
our  country? 

What  effect  would  a  sensitive  and  alert  public  opinion  have 
upon  the  enforcement  of  the  law? 

In  what  ways  are  brewers  interested  in  saloons  and  for 
these  socially  sinful  purposes? 

In  view  of  the  relation  of  the  liquor  business  to  the  social 
evil,  what  should  be  the  attitude  of  those  interested  in  the 
moral  welfare  of  the  community  toward  that  business? 

How  does  liquor  affect  the  lusts  of  the  flesh? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

Show  in  the  first  place  the  meaning  of  the  parental  instinct 
and  love  between  the  sexes  for  the  elevation  and  refinement 
of  man. 

But  this  noble  end  is  not  attainable  unless  moral  self- 
control  is  exercised. 

Alcohol  attacks  these  higher  centers  of  self-control  and 
thus  permits  these  powerful  life  forces  to  become  misdirected. 

The  institutions  that  are  interested  in  the  sale  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors  are  thus  inseparably  connected  with  the  social 
evil. 


52  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

Some  manufacturers  and  retailers  recognize  this  intimate 
relation  between  the  two  and  deliberately  encourage  it,  thereby 
making  abnormal  profits. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS   CAN  Do 

In  many  communities  the  great  need  is  for  intelligent  efforts 
in  enforcing  laws  already  enacted  making  it  a  misdemeanor 
to  foster  the  social  evil  in  liquor-selling  places. 

But  in  some  States  the  necessary  laws  are  not  yet  made. 

By  every  means  the  liquor  business  should  be  prevented 
from  encouraging  social  vice. 


LESSON  VI 

THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  AND  THE 
PUBLIC  SCHOOL 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

And  when  the  ten  heard  it,  they  began  to  be  moved 
with  indignation  concerning  James  and  John.  And 
Jesus  called  them  to  him,  and  saith  unto  them,  Ye 
know  that  they  who  are  accounted  to  rule  over  the 
Gentiles  lord  it  over  them;  and  their  great  ones 
exercise  authority  over  them.  But  it  is  not  so  among 
you :  but  whosoever  would  become  great  among  you 
shall  be  your  minister. — Mark  10.  41-43. 

It  is  good  not  to  eat  flesh,  nor  to  drink  wine,  nor 
to  do  anything  whereby  thy  brother  stumbleth. — 
Romans  14.  21. 

THE  LESSON 
The  value  of  an  education 

There  is  coming  to  be  an  intense  and  widespread  appre- 
ciation of  the  value — one  might  almost  say,  the  necessity — 
of  an  education.  Social  relations  are  becoming  more  and 
more  complex.  Specialists  are  increasingly  in  demand.  Un- 
skilled labor  faces  hardships  that  were  unknown  even  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  The  body  of  available  scientific  information 
is  rapidly  extending  and  the  trades  are  being  revolutionized 
by  it.  Each  new  generation  is  increasingly  dependent  upon 
the  system  of  public  education  as  a  means  of  preparation  for 
life.  Increasingly  large  appropriations  are  being  made  to 
maintain  and  equip  the  public  schools.  Without  them,  modern 
industrial,  business,  and  social  conditions  could  not  be  main- 

53 


54  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

tained.  They  are  a  necessary  part  of  our  national  life.  The 
State  not  only  assumes  the  responsibility  of  providing  a  free 
elementary  education  to  every  boy  and  girl,  it  also  makes 
attendance  at  school  compulsory. 

The  kind  of  pupils  needed 

But  no  matter  how  efficient  the  public  school  may  be,  it 
cannot  make  efficient  citizens  without  boys  and  girls.  They 
are  the  "raw  material"  out  of  which  the  "finished  product" 
is  made.  And  the  quality  of  this  "finished  product"  depends 
very  largely  upon  the  quality  of  the  "material"  provided. 
Sound  bodies,  senses  and  mental  faculties  alert  and  naturally 
strong,  adequate  daily  nourishment,  healthful  surroundings  in 
which  to  grow,  parents  whose  conduct  is  worthy  of  imitation, 
wholesome  moral  influences,  freedom  from  excessive  care 
and  responsibility,  all  these  should  be  the  heritage  of  those 
children  to  whom  alone  the  school  can  be  of  maximum 
service.  A  sickly  or  overburdened  child  is  greatly  handi- 
capped in  getting  an  education.  If  attendance  is  irregular, 
the  continuity  of  the  lesson  courses  is  broken  and  great 
hardships  result.  Teachers  need  the  active  and  intelligently 
sympathetic  cooperation  of  parents.  The  grade  of  work 
done  in  the  public  school  is  conditioned  by  the  kind  of  boys 
and  girls  who  attend.  This  fact  is  being  recognized  more 
and  more,  not  only  by  educators  and  others  immediately 
concerned  with  the  process  of  education,  but  also  by  those  to 
whom  the  "educated"  youth  applies  for  employment. 

Drink  robs  the  child  of  health 

The  British  Journal  of  Inebriety  for  January,  1900,  printed 
an  instructive  comparison  prepared  by  Professor  Demme  of 
Berne.  The  record  of  one  hundred  and  eighteen  persons,  the 
children  of  ten  drunkards  and  of  ten  sober  parents,  whose 
family  histories  had  been  carefully  investigated,  was  pre- 
pared with  painstaking  accuracy.  The  families  lived  in  the 
same  section  and  under  similar  conditions  except  for  drink. 


LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  AND  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS       55 


CHILDREN  OF  SOBER  PARENTS          CHILDREN  OF  DRUNKARDS 

Entirely   normal    50      Entirely   normal    g 

Mentally     feeble,     by     no            Idiots    8 

means  idiotic   2  Had    epileptic    or    convul- 

Died  of  general  weakness     3          sive  fits    13 

Died  of  gastric  catarrh. .     2  Became     drunkards     with 

Had       chorea       (so       in  complications     of     epi- 

original)     2          lepsy  and   chorea    5 

Physical  deformity  2      Deaf  mutes   2 

—      Physical    deformity    3 

61      Dwarfs   5 

Of  the  sixty-one,  five  died  Died    at,    or    soon    after, 

in  first  twelve  years.                        birth    12 

57 

Of  the  fifty-seven,  twenty- 
five  died  in   infancy. 


Weak  children  because  of  alcohol 

Professor  Taav  Laitinen,  of  the  University  of  Helsingfors, 
reports  a  comparison  of  children  in  fifty  abstaining  and  fifty- 
nine  drinking  families  in  one  village  in  Finland.  In  the  ab- 
staining families,  the  weakly  children  were  found  to  consti- 
tute 1.3  per  cent;  in  the  drinking  families,  8.2  per  cent.  Of 
the  children  in  the  abstaining  families,  18.5  per  cent  died 
while  still  children;  in  the  drinking  families,  24.8  per  cent. 
Another  study,  of  four  hundred  and  forty-four  children  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  alcoholic  mothers,  showed  that 
33.7  per  cent  of  the  first  born  eighty  children,  fifty  per  cent 
of  the  second  born  eighty  children,  52.6  per  cent  of  the  third 
born  eighty  children,  65.7  per  cent  of  the  fourth  and  fifth 
born  one  hundred  and  eleven  children,  and  72  per  cent  of 
the  sixth  to  the  tenth  born  ninety-three  children  died  while 
babies.  Of  the  living,  4.1  per  cent  were  epileptic. 

The  case  of  destitute  children 
Children  who  are  not  properly  clothed  and  nourished,  whose 


56  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

bodies  are  not  properly  cared  for,  find  it  difficult  to  give  that 
mental  application  which  is  necessary  in  securing  an  educa- 
tion. Bodily  discomfort  is  one  of  the  most  effective  of 
mental  distractions.  A  child  that  is  hungry  or  cold  or  whose 
skin  is  in  a  state  of  irritation  finds  it  difficult,  if  not  impos- 
sible, to  study.  The  1912  Bulletin  of  the  North  Carolina 
State  Board  of  Health  states  that  liquor  causes  forty-five  per 
cent  of  destitution  among  children.  Another  careful  survey 
found  that  out  of  fifty-one  hundred  and  thirty-six  children, 
45-97  Per  cent  "owed  their  destitution  to  the  intemperate 
habits  of  their  parents  or  others."  The  Associated  Charities 
of  Boston  found  that  out  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-two  able- 
bodied  men  who  failed  to  support  their  families,  two  hundred 
and  forty-three,  or  sixty-nine  per  cent,  were  drunkards.  It  is 
estimated  that  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  misery  of  children 
is  due  to  alcohol. 

The  child's  need  of  sympathy 

It  is  a  common  saying  that  there  is  no  royal  road  to 
learning.  It  is  up  hill  all  the  way.  A  child  needs  the  help, 
encouragement,  and  the  intelligent  interest  of  its  parents  to 
make  school  work  light.  Where  liquor  drinking  is  prevalent, 
it  has  been  observed  that  this  parental  interest  is  deadened. 
In  communities  where  saloons  have  been  voted  out  the 
parents  have  had  more  pride  in  and  ambition  for  their 
children.  The  cooperation  of  father  and  mother  to  help 
their  children  makes  a  vast  difference  in  the  educational 
progress  of  pupils.  During  three  years  of  prohibition  in 
North  Carolina  the  attendance  in  the  public  schools  increased 
four  per  cent,  the  school  term  was  lengthened,  and  the  school 
appropriations  were  almost  double  that  of  the  "wet"  years. 

The  distance  between  the  saloon  and  the  school 

"A  sufficient  indication  of  the  direct  and  immediately  harm- 
ful effect  of  the  saloon  upon  the  School  is  the  one  limitation 


LIQUOR    TRAFFIC    AND    PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   57 

imposed  upon  the  saloon  by  almost  every  license  law,  namely 
that  no  saloon  shall  be  within  a  given  distance  of  any  school. 
Surely  if  the  saloon  were  a  benefit  to  education,  it  could 
not  be  too  near  the  schoolhouse.  Has  a  law  ever  been  heard 
of  which  decreed  how  many  hundred  feet  apart  should  be 
the  church  and  the  home  or  the  home  and  the  school?  If 
the  saloon  be  bad  for  the  school  two  hundred  feet  from  a 
schoolhouse,  how  much  better  can  it  be  one  mile  away?" 

The  ethics  of  the  saloon 

Some  time  ago  a  school  teacher  reported  to  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Medicine  the  fact  that  one  of  the  boys  under 
her  charge  had  come  into  school  drunk.  He  had  been  induced 
to  confess  where  he  had  bought  the  liquor.  A  card  that  he 
pulled  out  of  hisa  pocket  told  the  story.  Every  time  the  boy 
got  a  drink  of  beer  a  hole  was  punched  in  the  card  and  a 
prize  was  given  by  the  saloon  keeper  to  the  boy  who,  at  the 
end  of  the  month,  had  the  largest  number  of  holes  in  his 
card. 

The  child  of  fourteen  years 

The  fourteen-year-old  child  of  parents  who  patronize  the 
saloon  usually  has  to  take  upon  himself  some  of  the  duties 
that  naturally  belong  to  the  parents  but  which  are  not  ful- 
filled by  them  because  of  drink.  These  added  burdens — 
whether  they  are  of  those  of  earning  money  or  of  taking 
care  of  younger  children  or  sick  members  of  the  family — 
seriously  interfere  with  the  getting  of  an  education.  Statistics 
have  shown  that  where  the  saloon  has  been  voted  out  the 
school  attendance  of  children  over  fourteen  years  of  age  has 
increased  from  five  to  twenty-five  per  cent.  The  beverage 
liquor  traffic  discourages  that  thrift  and  frugality  that  is  so 
essential  in  providing  children  of  this  age  with  the  oppor- 
tunity to  attend  school.  The  Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  showed  that 
"children  under  fifteen  years  of  age  supply  by  their  labor 


58  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

from  one  eighth  to  one  sixth  of  the  total  family  earnings/' 
A  boy  cannot  be  in  a  factory  and  a  school  at  the  same  time. 
And  the  saloon  usually  drives  him  to  the  factory. 

Illustrations  from  Texas,  Indiana,  and  Chicago 

The  1914  year-book  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  gives  the 
following  instance  of  the  result  of  the  abolition  of  the  saloon : 

"In  Texas  an  investigation  has  been  instituted  as 
to  the  effect  of  saloon  abolition  on  the  attendance  of 
children  in  public  schools.  Twenty-six  wet  towns 
were  investigated,  and  twenty-five  dry  ones.  It  was 
discovered  that  nearly  one  sixth  of  the  children  in 
the  wet  towns  are  kept  out  of  the  public  schools  by 
the  saloons. 

"It  is  found  that,  taking  the  State  as  a  whole, 
approximately  fifty  thousand  children  in  Texas  are 
robbed  by  the  saloons  of  that  State  of  a  public  school 
education." 

In  Indiana  it  was  found  that  out  of  every  one  hundred 
children  of  school  age,  in  the  "wet"  counties,  14.3  per  cent 
were  kept  out  of  school  on  account  of  the  saloon.  The  total 
was  forty-three  thousand  five  hundred  and  nine. 

In  Chicago,  with  its  splendid  educational  system  and  its 
seventy-one  hundred  and  fifty-two  saloons,  only  fifty-six  per 
cent  of  the  children  are  found  in  the  public  schools. 

How  the  saloon  affects  the  high  school 

The  Natick,  Massachusetts,  Handbook  for  1913  shows  that 
the  average  attendance  of  the  Natick  High  School  during 
license  years,  1902-7,  was  two  hundred  and  fifty-one,  during 
no  license  years,  1907-12,  two  hundred  and  seventy-six.  Dur- 
ing the  license  years,  as  shown  in  the  following  tables,  there 
was  an  actual  decrease  of  attendance.  But  there  was  a  gain 
of  eighty-three  pupils  during  the  five  no-license  years,  an 
average  gain  of  twenty-five  pupils  per  year  or  ten  per  cent 
for  each  of  the  no-license  years  over  the  license  years. 


LIQUOR    TRAFFIC    AND     PUBLIC     SCHOOLS    59 

Yet  the  population  of  the  town  had  not  increased 

License  years  Pupils  No-license  years  Pupils 

1902-3  246  1907-8  233 

1903-4  260  1908-9  264 

1904-5  261  1909-10  264 

1905-6  248  1910-11  303 

1906-7  242  1911-12  316 

Nov.  i,  1912  379 

In  the  entire  State  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  year  1910,  there 
were  seventeen  high-school  pupils  per  one  thousand  popu- 
lation in  license  cities  and  towns,  while  in  no-license  cities 
and  towns  there  were  twenty-three.  In  California  the  ratio 
is  that  of  twenty-eight  in  "wet"  territory  to  thirty-seven  in 
"dry." 

Drink  lotvers  the  moral  tone 

School  teachers  have  noticed  that  children  coming  from 
homes  of  drunkenness  are  often  morally  unfit  to  take  up  the 
daily  schoolroom  tasks.  They  are  frequently  sulky,  reckless, 
and  despondent,  easily  irritated,  and  unsteady.  Moreover, 
their  pernicious  influences  spread  to  the  other  children. 
Referring  to  some  of  the  children  who  do  not  attend  school, 
a  teacher  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  said : 

"We  send  the  truant  officer  for  them  but  he  finds 
them  without  shoes  or  other  decent  clothing,  with 
blackened  eyes  and  bruised  faces,  or  trying  to  act  as 
father  or  mother  for  the  younger  children  when  their 
parents  have  forgotten  them  and  are  on  a  drunk.  If 
such  children  come  to  school,  they  are  faint,  hungry, 
dirty,  uncared  for,  surly  and  irritable,  thoroughly 
despondent,  unable  to  apply  their  minds  to  the 
lessons." 

Alcohol  and  tuberculosis 

In  the  investigation  made  by  Professor  Von  Bunge  of 
Basel,  the  details  of  which  are  given  in  an  earlier  lesson  on 
"The  Use  of  Alcohol  a  Source  of  Poverty,"  alcohol  was 


60  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

shown  to  be  "the  most  active  cooperator  of  the  deadly  germ 
of  tuberculosis."  21.27  per  cent  of  the  children  whose  fathers 
were  confirmed  drunkards  were  found  to  be  tuberculous. 
Thus  the  great  white  plague  makes  fearful  inroads  into  the 
system  of  public  education.  To  protect  the  children  who  are 
physically  sound  and  to  aid  those  in  whom  incipient  tuber- 
culosis is  found,  many  communities  are  conducting  open-air 
schools.  But  no  amount  of  fresh  air  can  counteract  the 
terrible  weaknesses  and  liability  to  disease  which  result 
from  alcoholic  parentage.  Children  born  of  such  parents 
begin  their  struggle  for  an  education  under  a  heavy  handicap. 
In  the  interest  of  the  health  of  school  children,  the  drinking 
of  alcoholic  beverages  should  be  stopped. 

Retarded     development     of     children     of     alcoholic 
parentage 

One  of  the  most  difficult,  and  yet  the  most  important,  tasks 
of  educators  is  that  of  providing  in  the  various  grades  lessons 
that  are  suited  to  the  capacities  of  the  pupils.  Children  do 
not  develop  at  a  uniform  rate.  This  fact  greatly  increases 
the  teacher's  problem  of  the  adaptation  of  the  lesson  material. 
The  presence,  in  a  school,  of  children  of  alcoholic  parents 
increases  these  difficulties.  For  such  children  are  abnormally 
slow  in  developing.  A  suggestion  of  the  retarding  influence 
of  drink  is  seen  in  a  study  made  of  twenty-one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  children.  Of  those  whose  parents  were  abstainers, 
72.5  per  cent  had  cut  teeth  at  eight  months  of  age,  while  of 
those  of  parents  who  took  daily  more  than  one  glass  of  beer 
only  57.7  per  cent  had  cut  teeth  at  that  age. 

Muncie  drunk  and  Muncie  sober 

At  a  church  meeting  in  Muncie,  Indiana,  recently  a  teacher 
reported  certain  differences  she  had  observed  in  the  condition 
of  her  pupils  before  and  after  the  closing  of  the  saloons. 

When  saloons  were  running,  children  came  to  school  too 
hungry  and  cold  to  work  until  they  were  fed.  There  were 


LIQUOR    TRAFFIC    AND     PUBLIC    SCHOOLS   61 

little  children  of  six  and  eight  who  had  been  without  food 
one  and  two  days,  children  in  the  bitterest  weather  without 
underwear,  warm  wraps,  or  whole  shoes;  there  were  frozen 
fingers  and  toes  to  be  treated ;  there  were  little  faces  dis- 
colored by  blows,  all  because  of  drinking  fathers,  and  some- 
times because  of  drinking  mothers. 

After  the  saloons  were  closed  not  one  child  complained  of 
hunger;  only  one  coat  and  pair  of  shoes  had  to  be  furnished, 
and  these  to  a  fatherless  boy;  there  have  been  no  frozen 
hands  or  feet;  the  children  are  comfortably  clothed,  even  to 
mittens;  they  furnish  their  own  books,  which  many  did  not 
do  before,  and  are  regular  in  attendance.  Their  very  air  and 
manner  is  changed.  Instead  of  cringing  as  if  expecting 
blows  they  now  have  the  confidence  born  of  self-respect 
because  they  are  clean  and  clothed  like  other  children. 

Muncie  drunk  had  all  the  elements  for  producing  undesir- 
able citizens.  Muncie  dry  is  educating  and  training  her  quota 
of  efficiency  and  respectability. 

SOME   PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

Of  what  value  to  the  rising  generation  is  the  public  school 
system  ? 

To  what  extent  does  an  education  increase  one's  ability 
to  succeed? 

Why  should  the  physical  condition  of  the  pupils  be  as 
nearly  perfect  as  possible? 

If  parents  use  alcoholic  beverages,  what  will  be  the  prob- 
able physical  effects  upon  their  offspring? 

How  does  alcohol  influence  tuberculous  conditions  ? 

What  effect  does  a  parent's  use  of  strong  drink  have  upon 
the  rate  of  development  in  the  children? 

What  proportion  of  weakly  children  have  been  found  in 
families  of  drinking  parents? 

How  does  destitution  among  the  pupils  influence  the  effi- 
ciency of  a  school? 

How  should  the  home  cooperate  with  the  school? 


62  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

Is  this  cooperation  possible  if  the  parents  are  drunkards? 

Why  should  a  saloon  be  far  removed  from  a  schoolhouse? 

The  saloon  keepers,  as  a  class,  are  interested  in  boys  and 
girls.  For  what  purpose? 

What  effect  has  license  or  no  license  upon  school  attendance? 

Wrhat  moral  defects  are  likely  to  handicap  the  drunkard's 
child  in  school  work? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

Begin  by  having  the  members  show  the  value  of  an  educa- 
tion and  consequently  of  the  public  school  system. 

Show  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  qualities  which  are 
necessary  if  children  are  to  undergo  the  strain  of  a  thorough 
education. 

Have  an  array  of  facts  presented  showing  that  in  various 
ways  the  use  of  strong  drink  by  parents  unfits  children  for 
their  school  tasks. 

WHAT   OUR   CLASS   CAN   Do 

See  to  it  that  proper  instruction  regarding  the  dangers  of 
alcohol  is  given  in  the  public  schools  of  the  community. 
Have  the  class  purchase  copies  of  "Handbook  of  Modern 
Facts  About  Alcohol,"  by  C.  F.  Stoddard,  published  by  The 
Scientific  Temperance  Federation  (50  cents),  and  present 
them  to  all  public  school  teachers. 

Suppress  the  circulation,  either  through  the  public  library 
or  in  other  ways,  of  literature  such  as  "A  Textbook  of  True 
Temperance,"  by  M.  Monahan,  which  misrepresents  the 
effects  of  moderate  drinking. 

Influence  parents  to  take  a  greater  interest  in  the  tasks 
of  school  children. 

Find  out  what  per  cent  of  children  over  fourteen  years  of 
age  drop  out  of  school.  Investigate  the  reasons.  Encourage 
them  to  continue. 

Free  the  school  children  from  all  direct  or  indirect  burdens 
caused  by  the  sale  of  liquor  in  the  community. 


LESSON   VII 
ALCOHOL    THE    ENEMY    OF    LABOR 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

But  Daniel  purposed  in  his  heart  that  he  would  not 
defile  himself  with  the  king's  dainties,  nor  with  the 
wine  which  he  drank :  therefore  he  requested  of  the 
prince  of  the  eunuchs  that  he  might  not  defile  himself. 
Now  God  made  Daniel  to  find  kindness  and  compas- 
sion in  the  sight  of  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs.  And 
the  prince  of  the  eunuchs  said  unto  Daniel,  I  fear 
my  lord  the  king,  who  hath  appointed  your  food  and 
your  drink:  for  why  should  he  see  your  faces  worse 
looking  than  the  youths  that  are  of  your  own  age? 
so  would  ye  endanger  my  head  with  the  king.  Then 
said  Daniel  to  the  steward  whom  the  prince  of  the 
eunuchs  had  appointed  over  Daniel,  Hananiah, 
Mishael,  and  Azariah :  Prove  thy  servants,  I  beseech 
thee,  ten  days ;  and  let  them  give  us  pulse  to  eat,  and 
water  to  drink.  Then  let  our  countenances  be  looked 
upon  before  thee,  and  the  countenance  of  the  youths 
that  eat  of  the  king's  dainties ;  and  as  thou  seest, 
deal  with  thy  servants. 

So  he  hearkened  unto  them  in  this  matter,  and 
proved  them  ten  days.  And  at  the  end  of  ten  days 
their  countenances  appeared  fairer,  and  they  were 
fatter  in  flesh,  than  all  the  youths  that  did  eat  of 
the  king's  dainties.  So  the  steward  took  away  their 
dainties,  and  the  wine  that  they  should  drink,  and 
gave  them  pulse. 

Now  as  for  these  four  youths  God  gave  them 
knowledge  and  skill  in  all  learning  and  wisdom :  and 
Daniel  had  understanding  in  all  visions  and  dreams. 
And  at  the  end  of  the  days  which  the  king  had 
appointed  for  bringing  them  in,  the  prince  of  the 
eunuchs  brought  them  in  before  Nebuchadnezzar. 
And  the  king  communed  with  them ;  and  among  them 
all  was  found  none  like  Daniel,  Hananiah,  Mishael, 
and  Azariah :  therefore  stood  they  before  the  king. 

63 


.64  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

And  in  every  matter  of  wisdom  and  understanding, 
-concerning  which  the  king  inquired  of  them,  he  found 
them  ten  times  better  than  all  the  magicians  and 
•enchanters  that  were  in  all  his  realm. — Daniel  I.  8-20. 

THE  LESSON 
Society  rests  upon  labor 

There  rests  upon  every  normal  mature  member  of  society 
the  obligation  to  do  some  kind  of  work.  If  a  man  does 
not  do  what  God  intended  him  to,  either  some  one  else  must 
add  it  to  his  own  burden  or  else  it  remains  undone  and 
mankind  is  thereby  made  poorer.  It  is  possible  to  measure 
the  advancement  of  civilization  in  terms  of  labor.  For  on 
the  higher  plane  of  civilization  better  roads  and  bridges  are 
built,  better  bread  is  baked,  and  better  food  prepared.  The 
sick  receive  better  care.  Farms  are  more  productive.  Travel 
is  safer.  Physicians  are  more  skillful.  If  everyone  were  to 
stop  working,  hunger,  cold,  and  death  would  result.  If  the 
efficiency  of  those  who  toil  is  diminished,  society  is  thereby 
injured,  for  society  rests  upon  labor. 

The  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  decreases  a  laborer's 
pozver  to  produce 

During  the  months  of  May  and  June  in  a  year  when  there 
were  no  license  and  no  saloons  in  North  Easton,  Mass.,  three 
hundred  and  seventy-five  men  employed  by  the  Messrs.  Ames 
in  the  manufacture  of  shovels,  etc.,  produced  more  than  did 
four  hundred  men  working  under  the  same  labor  conditions  and 
for  the  same  length  of  time  the  year  after.  During  the  second 
year  the  town  went  license  and  the  four  hundred  men  were 
victims  of  saloon  influence.  The  manufacturers,  closely  ob- 
serving the  efficiency  of  their  employees,  said:  "We  attribute 
the  large  falling  off  entirely  to  the  repeal  of  the  prohibitory 
law  and  the  great  increase  in  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors 
among  our  men  in  consequence."  Another  manufacturer  says : 
"The  manufacturing  and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  is  doing 


ALCOHOL    THE    ENEMY    OF    LABOR  65 

more  to  undermine  the  health  and  decrease  the  efficiency  of 
the  employed  as  a  class  than  any  other  cause."  When  work 
is  slack,  drinking  men  are  the  first  to  be  laid  off.  They  are 
also  the  last  to  be  taken  back.  Because  their  power  to  pro- 
duce is  less,  theirs  is  the  smaller  chance  for  advancement. 

Abstainers  have  greater  physical  endurance  than  those 
who  drink 

On  one  occasion,  eighty-one  men  entered  a  walking  match, 
the  distance  being  sixty-two  miles.  The  first  four  to  cover 
the  distance  were  abstainers  and  only  two  of  the  first  ten 
had  drunk  anything  intoxicating  for  a  long  time.  More  than 
half  of  the  drinkers  had  to  quit,  while  only  two  of  the 
abstainers  fell  out. 

The  effects  of  beer  upon  endurance 

"Tests  made  in  the  Swedish  army  showed  that  soldiers, 
when  abstinent,  averaged  359.5  shots  before  becoming  ex- 
hausted, but  only  277.5  shots  when  they  had  taken,  a  short 
time  before  the  contest,  as  much  alcohol  as  is  contained  in 
one  and  one  quarter  pints  of  beer." 

Professor  Durig,  an  expert  mountain  climber,  found  that  if 
he  drank  two  to  two  and  one  half  glasses  of  beer  in  a  day 
he  had  to  expend  fifteen  per  cent  more  energy  than  on  the 
days  when  he  did  not  drink.  But  in  spite  of  this  increase  in 
energy,  it  took  him  21.7  per  cent  longer  to  reach  the  top 
of  a  mountain. 

The  opinion  of  labor  leaders 

"The  use  of  liquor  and  its  influences  have  done  more  to 
darken  labor's  homes,  dwarf  its  energies,  and  chain  it  hand 
and  foot  to  the  wheels  of  corporate  aggression  than  all  other 
influences  combined"  (R.  F.  Travelick,  President  National 
Eight  Hour  League). 

"The  damning  curse  to  labor  is  that  which  gurgles  from 


66  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

the  neck  of  the  bottle"  (T.  V.  Powderly,  Ex-General  Master 
Workman,  Knights  of  Labor). 

"If  a  brewery  is  closed,  in  its  place  springs  up  a  factory; 
if  a  saloon  is  closed,  in  its  place  comes  a  store"  (John  Mar- 
shall, Vice-President  American  Federation  of  Labor). 

"So  far  as  my  observation  goes,  drunkenness  was  at  the 
bottom  of  all  misery  in  workingmen's  homes.  Every  dollar 
received  in  revenue  from  the  liquor  traffic  costs  the  govern- 
ment twenty-one  dollars"  (C.  D.  Wright,  Ex-United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor). 

Keeping  within  the  margin 

A  careful  study  of  labor  conditions  in  Massachusetts  showed 
the  average  annual  cost  of  maintaining  one  laborer's  family 
to  be  $488.96.  The  average  yearly  earnings  of  a  laborer's 
family  was  seen  to  be  $534-99 — only  $46.03  more  than  the  cost 
of  that  family's  support.  A  margin  of  less  than  fifty  dollars 
a  year  between  the  family  and  poverty  or  want!  If,  because 
of  sickness  or  accident,  that  small  margin  should  be  wiped 
out,  then  the  family  is  no  longer  adding  to  the  nation's 
wealth — it  is  an  economic  burden.  And  yet  "in  Chicago  a 
group  of  laboring  men  spent  fourteen  hundred  dollars  in 
one  day  for  beer,  while  they  displayed  in  a  street  procession 
these  mottoes :  'Our  Children  Are  Crying  for  Bread,'  'Bread 
or  Blood.'  " 

The  confession  of  a  Michigan  farmer 

The  ordinary  workingman  cannot  afford  to  drink.  Value 
for  his  money  spent  for  beer  or  whiskey  is  not  received. 
What  he  gives  is  outrageously  out  of  proportion  to  what  he 
gets,  as  the  following  confession  will  show. 

"I  am  a  farmer  and  I  raise  rye.  One  day  I  took  a 
bushel  of  rye  down  to  the  distiller  and  sold  it  to  him 
for  fifty  cents.  The  distiller  got  out  of  the  bushel  of 
rye  three  and  one  half  gallons  of  proof  whiskey,  which 
he  sold  to  the  saloon  keeper.  I  then  started  with  the 
saloon  keeper  to  drink  up  my  bushel  of  rye  at  ten 
cents  a  drink,  eight  drinks  to  the  pint,  or  $6.40  a 


ALCOHOL    THE    ENEMY    OF    LABOR  67 

gallon.  The  three  and  one  half  gallons  of  proof 
whiskey,  which  my  fifty-cent  rye  had  made,  cost  me 
$22.40.  I  had  to  sell  enough  rye  to  the  distiller  to 
get  money  to  pay  the  saloon  keeper.  After  I  had 
hauled  forty-four  and  four  fifths  bushels  of  rye  to 
the  distiller  to  pay  for  what  I  had  gotten  out  of  one 
bushel,  and  after  I  had  figured  up  just  how  much 
hard  work  it  had  taken  to  produce  them,  I  said  to 
myself — 'What  a  fool !'  " 

Seven  times  an  Ohio  flood 

It  has  been  estimated  by  A.  P.  Sandles,  Secretary  of  the 
Ohio  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  that  the  loss  to  the 
farmers  of  that  State  as  a  result  of  the  recent  floods  was 
approximately  $10,000,000.  And  yet,  in  that  one  State,  there 
is  spent  annually  over  the  bars  of  the  saloons  $76,500,000. 
That  is  more  than  seven  times  as  much  as  the  farmers  lost 
in  the  floods!  When  land  is  injured  and  houses  wrecked, 
the  whole  nation  is  profoundly  stirred.  When  the  injury  is 
sevenfold  greater  and  is  a  direct  attack  upon  the  physical 
and  mental  efficiency  of  the  citizens,  it  is  tolerated.  Are  life 
and  labor  of  less  value  than  land? 

Our  annual  loss  of  productive  power 

Dr.  Homer  D.  Hitchcock,  long  president  of  the  Michigan 
State  Board  of  Health,  in  a  report  of  the  American  Public 
Health  Association,  estimated  the  annual  loss  of  productive 
life  in  this  country  by  reason  of  the  premature  deaths  caused 
by  alcohol  to  be  one  million  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
thousand  years.  Reckoning  the  productive  power  of  an  able- 
bodied  person  at  five  hundred  dollars  per  year,  we  have  an 
annual  waste  or  loss  of  $563,500,000.  But  to  this  enormous 
sum  must  be  added  the  loss  of  productive  power  due  to 
insanity  and  idiocy  caused  by  drink.  Dr.  Hitchcock  estimates 
that  each  year,  from  these  two  causes,  four  hundred  and 
sixteen  thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  years  of  pro- 
ductive labor  are  lost.  That  means  $209,083,500,  or  a  total 
amount  of  labor  valued  at  $772,583,500. 


68  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

The  relation  of  drink  to  sickness 

The  man  who  labors  cannot  afford  to  part  with  his  health. 
Loss  of  money  from  the  pay  envelope  is  apt  to  register  the 
days  of  sickness.  The  1910  Report  of  the  Leipsic  Sick 
Benefit  Societies  shows  that  at  the  ages  twenty-five  to  thirty- 
four  years  the  average  insured  man  was  sick  7.53  days  during 
the  year.  The  "drinkers"  were  sick  19.29  days.  "At  every 
age  period  drinkers'  sickness  lasted  about  two  and  one  half 
times  as  long  as  that  of  the  average  insured  man."  The 
record  also  showed  that  "between  twenty-five  and  forty-four 
years  of  age  'drinkers'  were  sick  on  the  average  2.7  times 
as  often  as  insured  men  in  general."  In  a  military  report 
containing  returns  of  a  regiment  of  British  soldiers,  the  non- 
abstainers  were  shown  to  have  a  sick  rate  of  two  and  one  half 
per  cent,  while  among  the  abstainers  the  rate  was  only  one 
half  of  one  per  cent. 

Drink  increases  liability  to  accident 

At  a  time  when  the  use  of  labor-saving  machinery  is 
rapidly  increasing  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  the 
muscles — both  large  and  small — be  under  perfect  control,  and 
that  the  sense  of  touch  be  unimpaired.  A  dull  sense  of 
touch  or  lack  of  muscular  control  multiplies  the  dangers  from 
tools  and  machines.  A  letter  sent  out  by  the  Ohio  Manu- 
facturers' Association  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
user  of  alcohol  does  "not  get  the  same  quick  response  to 
nervous  impressions  as  the  healthy  man  and  consequently  is 
a  frequent  loser  of  that  one  fifth  of  a  second  which  has 
saved  or  lost  so  many  lives."  Dangerous  occupations  are 
made  more  dangerous  by  drink.  In  a  famous  Iron  and  Steel 
Works  it  was  found  that  abstainers  had  one  third  less  acci- 
dents. The  Fidelity  and  Casualty  Company  says  concerning 
the  prevention  of  industrial  accidents:  "A  man  whose  nerves 
have  been  made  unsteady  by  a  recent  debauch,  or  by  the 
habitual  use  of  alcohol,  should  not  be  permitted  to  operate 
dangerous  machinery  or  to  carry  on  dangerous  work.  He 


ALCOHOL    THE    ENEMY    OF    LABOR  6g 

endangers  not  only  his  own  life,  but  the  lives  of  others." 
Drink  increases  liability  to  accident  because  it  leads  one  to  be 
reckless  and  foolhardy,  it  dulls  the  senses  by  which  danger 
is  perceived,  it  impairs  one's  judgment  of  distances,  and 
decreases  motor  control. 

The  fatal  third  hour 

The  effect  of  even  small  quantities  of  alcohol  is  to  make 
it  impossible  to  concentrate  one's  mind  upon  the  task  in  hand 
as  closely  as  when  one  is  free  from  alcohol.  Grebaut,  a  well- 
known  French  scientist,  has  shown  that  after  alcohol  has 
been  taken  into  the  stomach  the  percentage  of  it  in  the  blood 
that  supplies  the  brain  increases  gradually  from  two  and 
one  half  to  three  hours,  when  the  maximum  amount  is 
reached.  Detailed  and  independent  studies  of  industrial  acci- 
dents in  two  States  have  been  made  by  the  Massachusetts 
Industrial  Accident  Board  and  the  Bureau  of  Labor  of 
Minnesota.  Both  reports  state  that  the  greatest  number  of 
such  accidents  occur  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  If  fatigue  were  the  cause,  the 
fatal  hours  would  be  just  before  noon,  from  eleven-thirty 
to  twelve  o'clock  and  just  before  quitting  time  at  night.  "But 
between  eleven-thirty  and  twelve  o'clock  in  the  morning  there 
are  only  about  one  third  as  many  accidents  as  occur  at  ten 
o'clock,  and  at  five  in  the  afternoon  about  one  fourth  as  many 
as  at  three  o'clock."  Alcohol  taken  on  the  way  to  work — 
just  before  seven  and  one  o'clock — shows  its  greatest  injury 
about  three  hours  later. 

The  effect  upon  mental  efficiency 

As  time  goes  on  the  demands  for  accuracy  and  rapidity 
are  made  in  increasing  measure  upon  mental  laborers.  Hence 
the  added  significance  of  the 'following  facts  brought  out  in 
careful  experiments.  The  amount  of  alcohol  consumed  by 
one  who  drinks  from  two  thirds  of  a  bottle  to  a  bottle  of 
wine  a  day  for  twelve  successive  days  resulted  in  a  loss  in 


70  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

mental  efficiency  of  from  twenty-five  to  forty  per  cent.  The 
loss  of  power  to  add  was  forty  per  cent,  while  the  power  to 
memorize  on  the  twelfth  day  was  only  seventy  per  cent  of 
what  it  should  have  been,  taking  into  account  the  normal 
results  of  practice.  Those  who  took  from  two  to  four  glasses 
of  beer  a  day  for  twelve  days  were  able  to  do  only  sixty-five 
per  cent  of  the  work  in  adding  figures  that  normal  practice 
increase  would  have  made  possible.  Only  the  ignorant  identify 
a  feeling  of  mental  power  with  mental  power  itself.  Thomas 
Edison  is  reported  to  have  said:  "Using  drink  in  business 
is  like  putting  sand  in  the  bearings  of  an  engine." 

The  drunkard  as  a  consumer 

The  factory  hand  is  dependent  upon  a  job.  The  factory 
has  jobs  to  offer  when  there  is  a  demand  for  its  products. 
The  consumer — the  one  who  buys  clothes,  food,  and  a  house 
to  live  in — creates  this  demand  and  keeps  the  whole  industrial 
world  busy.  Leif  Jones,  an  eminent  member  of  the  British 
Parliament,  said : 

"I  met  the  finished  product  of  the  saloon.  He  was 
lying  in  the  gutter.  He  had  on  no  hat;  the  hat  trade 
was  suffering.  His  coat  was  full  of  holes;  the 
clothing  trade  was  suffering.  He  had  holes  in  his 
shoes;  the  shoe  trade  was  suffering.  He  had  on  the 
remnant  of  a  shirt ;  the  woolen  trade  was  suffering. 
He  had  on  no  socks;  the  hosiery  trade  was  suffering. 
He  was  dirty;  the  soap  trade  was  suffering.  I  can 
hardly  mention  a  useful  industry  that  was  not  suffer- 
ing because  of  that  man's  insobriety." 

Strong  drink  not  only  takes  away  a  man's  ability  to  work 
but  also  robs  the  man  who  has  ability  of  his  job. 

Man  robbed  of  his  ability  to  zvork 

Under  modern  conditions  the  majority  of  men  are  de- 
prived of  adequate  food,  shelter,  clothes,  and  enjoyment  if 
they  are  not  able  to  work.  When  man's  ability  to  work  is 
improved  the  advancement  of  civilization  is  aided.  Without 


ALCOHOL    THE    ENEMY    OF    LABOR  71 

men  and  women  who  enjoy  labor  and  are  equipped  physically, 
mentally,  and  morally  to  perform  useful  tasks,  society  in  its 
present  form  would  come  to  ruin.  But  drink  decreases  man's 
productive  power,  lessens  his  power  of  endurance,  increases 
his  liability  to  accident,  sickness,  and  premature  death.  It 
also  greatly  reduces  that  mental  clearness  which  is  becoming 
more  and  more  essential  to  the  wage  earner  in  an  age  when 
labor-saving  machinery  is  being  widely  used.  Moreover,  the 
whole  industrial  order  is  seriously  injured  when  the  prevalent 
use  of  alcohol  makes  it  impossible  for  a  large  portion  of  the 
population  to  become  normal  consumers  of  natural  and  useful 
products.  Alcohol  not  only  unfits  man  for  labor  but  also 
decreases  the  demand  for  labor. 

SOME   PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

What  would  be  the  result  if  half  of  the  workers  in  the 
world  should  suddenly  become  chronic  loafers? 

Why  should  a  man  try  to  maintain  his  highest  productive 
power? 

Name  four  of  the  most  important  factors  that  determine 
one's  ability  to  work. 

What  is  the  effect  of  alcohol  upon  endurance  ?  Skill  ? 
Accuracy?  Mental  efficiency?  Health? 

What  is  the  attitude  of  some  of  the  prominent  labor 
leaders  toward  drink? 

Why  should  the  poor  man  especially  keep  away  from  drink? 

What  are  the  profits  of  the  distiller  of  whiskey  as  compared 
with  other  manufacturers? 

If  the  loss  caused  by  the  use  of  alcoholic  beverages  were 
concentrated  into  one  calamity,  what  would  be  the  result? 

What  would  happen  to  the  price  of  labor  if  liquor  drinking 
should  cease  and  there  should  be  a  corresponding  rise  in 
productive  power? 

Would  the  increased  demand  for  manufactured  articles 
and  general  labor  use  up  this  new  supply  of  productive 
power? 


72  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

What  lessons  may  be  drawn  from  Daniel's  insisting  upon  a 
simple  diet? 

Are  the  conditions  of  labor  so  healthful  now  that  men  can 
justify  habits  that  tend  to  increase  sickness? 

How  does  the  increased  use  of  machinery  affect  the  problem 
of  the  use  of  liquor? 

How  does  the  use  of  alcohol  in  small  quantities  affect  one's 
mental  efficiency? 

How  is  the  shoe  trade  affected  by  the  liquor  business? 

What  should  be  the  attitude  of  the  wage  earner  toward  the 
saloon  ? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

The  class  discussion  may  profitably  center  in  the  following 
important  truths: 

Labor  holds  a  fundamental  and  dignified  position. 

Strong  drink  makes  a  man  physically  unfit  to  work. 

It  also  takes  away  those  mental  qualities  which  are  in- 
creasingly in  demand. 

Labor  is  gradually  coming  to  see  that  alcohol  is  its  worst 
enemy.  Manufacturers  and  labor  leaders  are  trying  to  save 
the  wage  earner  from  the  use  of  alcohol. 

WHAT  OUR   CLASS   CAN   Do 

Help  local  labor  organizations  to  conduct  a  campaign  of 
education  among  their  members. 

Hold  shop  and  street  meetings  in  the  interest  of  a  saloon- 
less  community. 

See  that  laws  are  enacted  and  enforced  which  will  keep 
saloons  closed  until  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  at  the 
noon  hour. 


LESSON   VIII 

THE   POLITICAL  ACTIVITY  OF  THE 
LIQUOR  INTERESTS 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

Why  standest  them  afar  off,  O  Jehovah? 

Why  hidest  thou  thyself  in  times  of  trouble? 

In  the  pride  of  the  wicked  the  poor  is  hotly  pursued ; 

Let  them  be  taken  in  the  devices  that  they  have  con- 
ceived. 

For  the  wicked  boasteth  of  his  heart's  desire, 

And  the  covetous  renounceth,  yea,  contemneth 
Jehovah. 

The  wicked,  in  the  pride  of  his  countenance,  saith, 
He  will  not  require  it. 

All  his  thoughts  are,  There  is  no  God. 

His  ways  are  firm  at  all  times ; 

Thy  judgments  are  far  above  out  of  his  sight: 

As  for  all  his  adversaries,  he  puffeth  at  them. 

He  saith  in  his  heart,  I  shall  not  be  moved ; 

To  all  generations  I  shall  not  be  in  adversity. 

His  mouth  is  full  of  cursing  and  deceit  and  oppres- 
sion: 

Under  his  tongue  is  mischief  and  iniquity. 

He  sitteth  in  the  lurking-places  of  the  villages ; 

In  the  secret  places  doth  he  murder  the  innocent ; 

His  eyes  are  privily  set  against  the  helpless. 

He  lurketh  in  secret  as  a  lion  in  his  covert; 

He  lieth  in  wait  to  catch  the  poor : 

He  doth  catch  the  poor,  when  he  draweth  him  in  his 
net. 

He  croucheth,  he  boweth  down, 

And  the  helpless  fall  by  his  strong  ones. 

He  saith  in  his  heart:  God  hath  forgotten, 

He  hideth  his  face,  he  will  never  see  it. 

Arise,  O  Jehovah;  O  God,  lift  up  thy  hand: 

Forget  not  the  poor. — Psalm  10.  1-12. 

73 


74  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

THE  LESSON 
The  opinions  of  men  of  political  experience 

The  following  opinions  expressed  by  a  governor,  a  senator, 
a  judge,  a  president  of  the  United  States,  and  a  world 
statesman,  all  of  whom  have  witnessed  the  political  activity 
of  the  liquor  interests,  are  worthy  of  the  most  careful 
thought.  The  late  Senator  Edward  Carmack,  of  Tennessee, 
said : 

"I  am  weary  of  saloon  domination.  I  am  weary 
of  a  condition  of  things  where  the  man  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  make  the  laws  must  hold  his  office  by 
consent  of  the  man  whose  business  it  is  to  break 
the  laws." 

Judge  Claudius  B.  Grant,  formerly  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Michigan,  expresses  the 
opinion  that, 

"The  saloon  has  ever  been  and  ever  will  be  a 
corrupt  element  in  politics." 

Ex-Governor  William  M.  Dawson  of  West  Virginia  says: 

"Do  men  deplore  the  rule  of  corrupt  political 
bosses?  It  is  the  saloon  that  rallies  the  mass  of  venal 
and  unpatriotic  voters  who  constitute  the  phalanx  of 
the  bosses'  power.  Has  crime  become  rampant  on  the 
streets?  The  saloon  is  the  refuge  of  criminals.  Does 
vice  seek  protection  ?  The  saloon  effects  the  arrange- 
ment with  the  policemen  who  are  familiar  with  its 
dark  secrets  and  comrades  of  its  debased  fraternity. 
Do  gamblers  wish  to  ply  their  demoralized  trade 
among  the  }^oung?  The  saloon  affords  them  not 
only  the  shield,  but  brings  them  the  susceptible  patron- 
age of  inexperienced  youths." 

Thomas  Jefferson  said : 

"The  habit  of  using  ardent  spirits  by  men  in  office 
has  occasioned  more  injury  to  the  public  and  more 
trouble  to  me  than  all  other  sources.  And  were  I 
to  commence  my  administration  again  the  first  ques- 
tion I  would  ask  respecting  a  candidate  for  office 
would  be:  Does  he  use  ardent  spirits?" 


LIQUOR    POLITICAL   ACTIVITIES  75 

William  E.  Gladstone's  judgment  was: 

"This  traffic  has  wrought  more  harm  than  the  three 
historic  scourges — war,  famine,  and  pestilence — com- 
bined." 

Nezvspaper  corruption 

One  of  the  most  fundamental  and  far-reaching  political 
activities  of  the  liquor  interests  has  been,  and  is,  the  creation 
of  public  opinion  through  influences  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  newspapers.  In  1889  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  gave  a 
substantial  majority  against  a  Prohibition  amendment.  The 
manager  of  the  liquor  funds  and  forces  is  reported  to  have 
made  the  following  statement  after  the  campaign  was  over, 
showing  how  the  newspapers  were  handled: 

"We  bought  them  by  paying  down  so  much  cash. 
I  visited  the  editors  in  person,  or  had  some  good  man 
do  so,  and  arranged  to  pay  each  paper  for  its  support 
a  certain  amount  of  money.  Throughout  the  State 
we  paid  weekly  papers  from  fifty  to  five  hundred 
dollars  to  publish  such  matter  as  we  might  furnish, 
either  news  or  editorial,  but  the  city  daily  papers  we 
had  to  pay  from  one  thousand  to  four  thousand 
dollars.  ...  It  was  understood  with  most  of  all  the 
papers  that  we  would  furnish  the  matter,  and  so  we 
employed  a  man  to  write  for  us  and  prepare  articles 
for  publication,  which  would  be  furnished  to  the 
papers  to  be  printed  as  news  or  editorial  matter,  as 
we  might  direct.  The  most  effective  matter  we 
could  get  up  in  the  influencing  of  votes  was  that 
Prohibition  did  not  prohibit,  and  the  revenue,  taxa- 
tion, and  how*Prohibition  would  hurt  the  farmers. 
We  would  have  these  articles  printed  in  different 
papers  and  then  buy  thousands  of  copies  of  the  paper 
and  send  them  to  the  farmers.  If  you  work  the 
farmers  on  the  tax  question  you  can  catch  them  every 
time." 

Alcohol  in  the  melting  pot 

The  influence  of  the  saloon  upon  the  millions  of  foreigners 
who  are  coming  to  be  such  a  potent  factor  in  the  political 
life  of  our  nation  has  become  alarming.  The  liquor  interests 


76  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

are  taking  advantage  of  the  susceptibility  of  the  foreigner  to 
early  social  and  political  impressions.  In  the  "Brewers' 
Journal"  of  June  I,  1910,  appeared  this  statement: 

"The  Anglo-Saxon  element,  from  which  we  in- 
herited the  abominable  remnants  of  puritanism,  is 
rapidly  disappearing  in  this  country." 

In  the  following  statement  Mr.  Harry  G.  McCain  gives  a 
picture  of  alcohol  in  the  melting  pot. 

"The  political  ideals  of  these  people  are  blighted 
and  blasted  by  the  political  atmosphere  of  the  saloon. 
What  are  the  political  ideals  of  the  liquor  traffic? 
It  is  the  arch  vote-purchasing  and  politics-corrupting 
agency  of  this  nation.  The  liquor  traffic  teaches  the 
immigrant  that  it  is  not  the  integrity  of  the  candidate, 
nor  the  justice  of  a  measure,  that  should  determine 
a  man's  vote,  but  the  highest  bidder!  The  liquor 
traffic  knows  no  law  of  service  or  self-sacrifice;  it 
follows  no  principle  except  self-aggrandizement,  and 
has  no  ideal  except  to  'rule  and  ruin.'  These  political 
tenets  it  teaches  to  these  millions  who  will  be  citizens 
to-morrow.  What  does  this  mean  for  the  future 
of  our  nation? 

"Does  the  immigrant  constitute  a  menace  to  Amer- 
ican ideals  and  institutions?  If  so,  it  is  because  of  the 
influence  of  the  liquor  traffic  in  his  life.  What  are  we 
going  to  do  about  it?  Can  we  evangelize  the  slums 
while  the  liquor  system,  backed  by  an  enormous  trust, 
is  intrenched  there,  making  criminals  a  hundredfold 
faster  than  we  can  make  citizens?  If  we  can't  com- 
pete with  the  liquor  traffic,  let's  kill  the  competitor !" 

Brewery  ownership  of  saloons 

If  the  saloons  are  known  to  be  the  rallying  places  of 
corrupt  politicians  and  "venal,  unpatriotic  voters,"  the  danger 
of  having  their  political  power  centralized  and  in  control  of 
any  small  group  of  financially  interested  men  is  apparent. 
In  this  connection  it  is  significant  to  note  the  number  of 
saloons  owned  by  brewers.  In  1913  the  Legislature  of  Minne- 
sota appointed  a  special  committee  to  investigate  the  relation 
between  the  brewers  and  the  saloons  of  that  license  State. 


LIQUOR    POLITICAL   ACTIVITIES  77 

The  committee  made  a  searching  investigation,  and  the 
substance  of  its  report  was  published  in  the  Minneapolis 
News  of  March  18  of  that  year  as  follows: 

"Breweries  control  seven  eighths  of  the  saloons  of 
the  Twin  Cities,  promote  houses  of  ill-fame  and  blind 
pigs,  and  corrupt  politics. 

"Out  of  eight  hundred  and  fourteen  saloons  in 
Minneapolis  and  Saint  Paul,  seven  hundred  and  twelve 
are  either  owned  or  controlled  by  brewing  companies. 

"Four  hundred  and  eighteen  buildings  occupied  by 
saloons  are  owned  by  brewing  companies,  and  in  many 
other  cases  the  brewers  own  the  fixtures  or  hold 
mortgages  on  buildings  or  sites. 

"In  Minneapolis  three  brewing  companies  own  two 
hundred  and  seventy  saloon  buildings. 

"There  are  sixteen  brewing  companies  in  business 
in  the  two  cities. 

"Agents  for  brewing  companies  appear  with  appli- 
cants for  liquor  licenses  and  practically  control  the 
granting  of  such  licenses. 

"From  sixty  to  seventy-five  per  cent  of  license  fees 
in  Saint  Paul  are  paid  by  breweries,  and  over  forty 
per  cent  in  Minneapolis. 

"As  many  as  twenty-five  licenses  are  held  by  one 
brewing  company. 

"Many  license  fees  are  paid  by  breweries  who  are 
paid  back  by  saloon  keepers  in  installments  of  twenty 
dollars  weekly. 

"Brewing  companies  buy  property  for  blind  pig 
purposes  and  for  houses  of  ill-fame,  placing  agents 
in  charge  of  same. 

"Blind  pigs  are  encouraged  by  breweries,  who  de- 
posit as  high  as  one  thousand  dollars  to  pay  possible 
fines." 

A  lobby  in  Washington 

With  political  influence  and  vast  capital  thus  centralized, 
influence  upon  legislation  is  the  next  logical  step.  Mr. 
William  E.  Johnson,  when  chief  special  officer  of  the  United 
States  Indian  Service,  said  that  the  United  States  Brewers' 
Association,  ever  since  its  organization  in  1860,  has  main- 
tained a  lobby  in  Washington  and  has  exercised  a  powerful 


78  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

influence  over  legislation  proposals  affecting  its  interests.  For 
thirty  years  after  its  organization  this  association  is  said  to 
have  had  things  practically  its  own  way  in  the  capital  of  the 
nation.  It  was  said  of  Senator  Blair,  for  instance,  that  he 
led  the  contest  for  national  Prohibition  "with  such  vigor 
and  persistency  that  his  political  downfall  resulted." 

Money  and  politics 

It  is  a  fact  universally  recognized  that  under  the  Republican 
form  of  government  money  is  a  large  factor  in  political 
affairs.  The  ordinary  voter  is  not  aware  of  the  vast  amounts 
of  money  that  are  available  for  use  by  those  who  are  intent 
upon  furthering  the  interests  of  the  liquor  business.  It  is 
estimated  that  Chicago  spends  at  least  half  as  much  for  what 
it  drinks  as  for  what  it  eats,  not  counting  the  cost  of  the 
cooking  and  serving  of  food.  The  receipts  in  the  retail 
liquor  trade  in  this  city  for  one  year  were  over  $100,000,000. 
With  this  vast  sum  in  the  hands  of  men  whose  motives  have 
become  morally  degenerate,  the  political  menace  becomes 
gigantic.  In  a  study  of  the  great  business  of  dissipation  in 
Chicago,  Mr.  George  Kibbe  Turner,  a  noted  magazine  writer, 
found  that  the  profits  and  the  political  necessities  of  the 
business  of  dissipation  are  incomparably  greater  than  those 
of  the  public  service  corporation.  Then,  because  their  "busi- 
ness" demands  the  breaking  of  the  law,  these  dealers  must 
go  into  politics,  they  must  control  politics — and  they  do.  It 
has  been  no  secret  that  the  control  of  the  first  and  eighteenth 
wards,  in  which  the  "business  of  dissipation"  was  concen- 
trated, was  in  the  hands  of  saloon  keepers  of  evil  reputa- 
tion. The  writer  expressed  the  opinion  that  this  control  by 
the  liquor  interests  extended  over  every  part  of  the  municipal 
government  from  the  city  hall  to  the  newly  appointed  police- 
men. Appointments  were  influenced,  "payment  for  protec- 
tion" was  collected  from  places  of  vice,  vote  buying  was 
deliberately  carried  on.  Mr.  Turner  pleaded  for  a  simpli- 
fication of  municipal  government  so  that  the  "will  of  the 


LIQUOR    POLITICAL   ACTIVITIES  79 

people"  might  be  obtained.  "The  fact  is,"  he  writes,  "that 
under  present  conditions  the  financial  interests  of  dissipation 
have  more  direct  representation  in  the  administration  of  the 
city  government  than  the  will  of  the  people." 

"It  is  true  that  criminal  saloons  have  an  understanding 
with  the  police  that  they  may  violate  the  law  until  some  one 
protests,  and  that  then  they  will  be  notified  by  the  police  and 
kept  in  touch  with  the  situation  until  it  is  advisable  for  them 
to  resume  the  practices  which  are  objected  to." 

The  conclusion  arrived  at  by  this  careful  investigation  was 
that  saloon  money  must  be  taken  out  of  politics.  "It  is  safe 
to  guarantee  that  when  the  money  .  .  .  has  been  taken  out  of 
politics,  the  only  'regulation'  of  saloons  that  will  appear 
'reasonable'  is  total  annihilation." 

Moral  and  political  forces 

In  order  for  society  to  be  maintained  in  safe  and  enduring 
form,  there  must  be  harmony  between  its  organized  moral 
forces,  such  as  the  home,  the  school,  the  church,  and  the 
organized  political  forces,  such  as  the  political  parties.  If 
the  organized  political  forces  become  dominated  by  interests 
that  create  and  maintain  influences  which  lead  to  the  de- 
moralization of  man,  the  outlook  for  society  is  dark.  When 
political  parties  in  power  make  possible  laws  which  imperil 
the  home,  which  permit  the  social  corruption  of  youth,  which 
seriously  interfere  with  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath,  their 
moral  character  must  be  judged  by  their  fruits.  "Is  there  a 
law,"  writes  Dr.  A.  A.  Hopkins,  "which  comes  between  the 
home  and  the  school,  and  halts  the  feet  that  seek  the  halls 
of  learning,  and  turns  them  surely  to  the  paths  of  shame, 
which  makes  more  difficult  the  teacher's  task,  and  renders 
less  beneficent  the  school's  mission,  and  spreads  ignorance, 
vice,  and  crime  where  education  should  be  beneficently  dif- 
fused? Then  this  law  is  evidence,  actual,  unimpeachable, 
and  appalling,  that  there  are  organized  political  forces  not  in 
harmony  with  moral  forces." 


8o  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

The  saloon  keeper  and  the  voter 

If  a  voter,  after  having  become  informed  as  to  the  political, 
moral,  and  economic  devastation  wrought  by  the  saloon, 
continues  to  vote  for  license,  he  thereby  becomes  morally 
responsible,  with  the  man  more  directly  connected  with  the 
liquor  business,  for  these  evil  results.  Here  is  the  case 
stated  in  simple  terms  by  Mr.  George  R.  Stewart  in  his 
"The  Saloon  Under  the  Searchlight" : 

"My  neighbor,  A,  on  the  left,  has  some  money  in 
his  pocket  which  I  desire  to  secure  to  assist  me  in 
paying  the  taxes  on  my  property.  To  do  this  it  will 
be  necessary  to  murder  this  man.  I  do  not  desire  to 
murder  him  myself,  because  I  am  a  so-called  decent 
citizen.  I  do  not  care  to  have  my  family  and  my  repu- 
tation connected  with  a  murder  case  in  the  courts. 
My  neighbor,  B,  on  the  right,  is  a  vicious  character. 
He  is  blinded  by  the  dollar.  His  ideas  of  brotherly 
love,  of  man's  duty  to  his  fellow  man,  and  of  man's 
duty  to  his  community,  are  low  and  vicious.  He  has 
no  family  pride  and  no  personal  pride.  He  is  willing 
to  sell  out  everything  for  the  dollar.  I  combine  with 
my  neighbor,  B,  furnish  him  my  pistol  with  which 
to  kill  neighbor,  A,  and  he  and  I  divide  the  money 
filched  from  the  dead  man's  pocket.  He  supports  his 
family  with  his  part ;  I  pay  my  taxes  with  mine.  Now 
let  neighbor  A  represent  the  poor  unfortunate  man 
whose  appetite  leads  to  drink.  Let  B  represent  the 
saloon  keeper,  with  whom  I  combine,  to  whom  I 
furnish  my  ballot.  It  is  my  ballot  with  which  he 
procures  the  saloon,  furnishes  the  liquor  to  my  neigh- 
bor, A,  and  takes  his  money  for  it.  His  liquor  destroys 
the  poor,  unfortunate  man.  I  get  a  part  of  the  money 
to  pay  my  taxes.  I  hold  that  the  poor,  vicious  B  is 
as  vile  in  the  second  act  as  he  is  in  the  first,  and  that 
I,  who  would  not  do  the  act  myself,  but  furnished  to 
him  the  means  with  which  he  might  do  it,  am  a  more 
vicious  character  in  each  case  than  he." 

Organized  moral  forces  must  make   themselves  felt 
politically 

The   vast   amount   of    legislation   that    makes   possible    the 


LIQUOR    POLITICAL   ACTIVITIES  81 

development  of  the  liquor  business  and  gives  it  political 
protection  registers  the  political  successes  of  that  business. 
It  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  the  organized  immoral 
forces  are  inherently  stronger  than  those  that  are  moral.  But 
it  does  mean  that  they  are  so  related  to  the  political  life  of 
the  nation  or  State  that  they  have  greater  political  influence. 
The  imperative  demand  is  that  the  citizens  who  are  vitally 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  home,  the  school,  and  the 
church,  become  organized  so  as  to  make  their  maximum 
strength  felt  in  the  places  where  laws  are  made  and  enforced. 
There  must  come  harmony  and  cooperation  among  the  various 
churches  and  patriotic  and  educational  societies.  A  common 
and  trusted  leadership  is  greatly  needed.  The  full  force  of 
the  moral  elements  in  the  nation  is  greater  than  those  that 
are  immoral.  They  can  control  the  politics  of  the  nation. 
But  in  order  to  actually  accomplish  that  end  they  must 
develop  greater  political  interest  and  activity.  The  political 
party  in  power  must  be  dominated  by  the  highest  moral 
motives  and  remain  inviolable  and  incorruptible  in  carrying 
through  its  exalted  purpose. 

The  opinion  of  John  Adams 

In    the    following   words    one    of    our   greatest    statesmen 
predicted  the  political  danger  of  the  liquor  business: 

"Like  so  many  boxes  of  Pandora,  dram-shops  are 
hourly  scattering  plagues  of  every  kind — natural, 
moral,  and  political.  The  worst  effect  of  all,  and 
which  ought  to  make  every  man,  who  has  the  least 
sense  of  his  privilege,  tremble,  these  houses  are 
become  in  many  places  the  nurseries  of  our  legis- 
lators. ...  I  think  it  would  be  well  worth  the  atten- 
tion of  our  Legislature  to  confine  the  number  and 
retrieve  the  character  of  licensed  houses,  lest  that 
impiety  and  profaneness,  that  abandoned  intemperance 
and  prodigality,  that  impudence  and  brawling  temper, 
which  these  abominable  nurseries  daily  propagate, 
should  arrive  at  last  to  a  degree  of  strength  that  even 
the  Legislature  will  not  be  able  to  control." 


82  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

The  "plagues  of  every  kind,"  newspaper  corruption,  injury 
to  voters  coming  from  the  immigrant  classes,  brewery  owner- 
ship of  saloons,  the  rallying  of  unpatriotic  voters,  a  powerful 
lobby,  the  attack  upon  the  morals  of  our  lawmakers,  have 
all  been  scattered  over  our  political  life.  And  we,  as  a 
nation,  are  reaping  an  awful  harvest  of  ills. 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

How  did  William  E.  Gladstone  look  upon  the  liquor  traffic? 

What  was  Thomas  Jefferson's  opinion? 

In  what  ways  have  the  liquor  interests  used  the  news- 
papers to  influence  public  opinion? 

What  evidences  are  there  that  liquor  advertisements  have 
served  as  bribes? 

What  is  the  influence  of  the  saloon  upon  the  immigrant? 

To  what  extent  were  the  saloons  in  Minneapolis  and  Saint 
Paul  under  the  direct  control  of  the  brewers? 

How  do  such  saloons  constitute  a  political  menace? 

What  has  been  the  history  of  the  liquor  lobby  at  Washing- 
ton? 

What  political  danger  can  you  see  in  the  vast  sums  of 
money  in  control  of  the  liquor  interests? 

To  what  extent  is  the  voter  who  votes  for  license  respon- 
sible for  the  social  injury  caused  by  the  saloon? 

Why  should  the  moral  and  religious  forces  of  a  community 
feel  the  responsibility  of  making  themselves  felt  politically? 

Is  it  just  to  judge  the  moral  character  of  the  party  in 
power  by  the  moral  character  of  the  legislation  enacted  by  it? 

How  can  the  Christian  sentiment  of  America  manifest  its 
full  strength  at  the  polls? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

Guard  against  any  tendency  to  let  the  discussion  drift  away 
from  the  main  point  of  the  lesson.  The  spirit  of  political 
partisanship  should  not  enter  into  the  discussion. 


LIQUOR    POLITICAL   ACTIVITIES  83 

Show  by  what  methods  the  liquor  interests  have  tried  to 
influence  voters  and  legislators.  Have  it  brought  vividly 
before  the  class  that  these  interests  are  equipped  with  the 
kind  of  resources  that  count  in  such  undertakings. 

In  the  final  moments  of  the  hour  let  every  member  feel 
the  responsibility  for  the  organization  of  the  moral  forces 
of  which  he  is  a  part,  to  the  end  that  each  may  become 
politically  effective. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS  CAN  Do 

Before  local  and  State  elections  find  out  the  attitude  of 
the  candidates  toward  the  liquor  business.  See  to  it  that 
the  members  of  the  class,  and  all  voters  of  similar  moral 
sympathies,  are  correctly  informed. 

Have  candidates  for  office  come  before  the  class  or  before 
a  meeting  arranged  for  by  it  and  declare  their  attitude  on 
this  question. 

Bring  moral  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  newspapers  to  help 
them  resist  the  pressure  of  the  liquor  interests.  Patronize 
those  that  stand  against  such  interests. 


LESSON  IX 
HOW    DRINK    INJURES    THE    HOME 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

Who  hath  woe?  who  hath  sorrow?  who  hath  conten- 
tions? 

Who  hath   complaining?   who   hath   wounds   without 
cause? 

Who  hath  redness  of  eyes? 

They  that  tarry  long  at  the  wine; 

They  that  go  to  seek  out  mixed  wine. 

Look  not  thou  upon  the  wine  when  it  is  red, 

When  it  sparkleth  in  the  cup, 

When  it  goeth  down  smoothly : 

At  the  last  it  biteth  like  a  serpent, 

And  stingeth  like  an  adder. 

Thine  eyes  shall  behold  strange  things, 

And  thy  heart  shall  utter  perverse  things. 

—Proverbs  23.  29-33. 

On  the  seventh  day,  when  the  heart  of  the  king  was 
merry  with  wine,  he  commanded  Mehuman,  Biztha, 
Harbona,  Bigtha,  and  Abagtha,  Zethar,  and  Carcas, 
the  seven  chamberlains  that  ministered  in  the  presence 
of  Ahasuerus  the  king,  to  bring  Vashti  the  queen 
before  the  king  with  the  crown  royal,  to  show  the 
peoples  and  the  princes  her  beauty;  for  she  was  fair 
to  look  on.  But  the  queen  Vashti  refused  to  come  at 
the  king's  commandment  by  the  chamberlains :  there- 
fore was  the  king  very  wroth,  and  his  anger  burned 
in  him. 

Then  the  king  said  to  the  wise  men,  who  knew  the 
times  (for  so  was  the  king's  manner  toward  all  that 
knew  law  and  judgment;  and  the  next  unto  him  were 
Carshena,  Shethar,  Admatha,  Tarshish,  Meres,  Mar- 
sena,  and  Memucan,  the  seven  princes  of  Persia  and 
Media,  who  saw  the  king's  face,  and  sat  first  in  the 
kingdom),  What  shall  we  do  unto  the  queen  Vashti 
according  to  law,  because  she  hath  not  done  the  bid- 
ding of  the  king  Ahasuerus  by  the  chamberlains? 
84 


HOW    DRINK    INJURES     THE    HOME  85 

And  Memucan  answered  before  the  king  and  the 
princes,  Vashti  the  queen  hath  not  done  wrong  to  the 
king  only,  but  also  to  all  the  princes,  and  to  all  the 
peoples  that  are  in  all  the  provinces  of  the  king 
Ahasuerus.  For  this  deed  of  the  queen  will  come 
abroad  unto  all  women,  to  make  their  husbands  con- 
temptible in  their  eyes,  when  it  shall  be  reported, 
The  king  Ahasuerus  commanded  Vashti  the  queen  to 
be  brought  in  before  him,  but  she  came  not.  And 
this  day  will  the  princesses  of  Persia  and  Media  who 
have  heard  of  the  deed  of  the  queen  say  the  like 
unto  all  the  king's  princes.  So  will  there  arise  much 
contempt  and  wrath.  If  it  please  the  king,  let  there 
go  forth  a  royal  commandment  from  him,  and  let  it 
be  written  among  the  laws  of  the  Persians  and  the 
Medes,  that  it  be  not  altered,  that  Vashti  come  no 
more  before  king  Ahasuerus ;  and  let  the  king  give 
her  royal  estate  unto  another  that  is  better  than  she. 
And  when  the  king's  decree  which  he  shall  make 
shall  be  published  throughout  all  his  kingdom  (for 
it  is  great),  all  the  wives  will  give  to  their  husbands 
honor,  both  to  great  and  small.  And  the  saying 
pleased  the  king  and  the  princes ;  and  the  king  did 
according  to  the  word  of  Memucan :  for  he  sent 
letters  into  all  the  king's  provinces,  into  every  prov- 
ince according  to  the  writing  thereof,  and  to  every 
people  after  their  language,  that  every  man  should 
bear  rule  in  his  own  house,  and  should  speak  accord- 
ing to  the  language  of  his  people. — Esther  i.  10-22. 

And  Abigail  came  to  Nabal ;  and,  behold,  he  held 
a  feast  in  his  house,  like  the  feast  of  a  king;  and 
Nabal's  heart  was  merry  within  him,  for  he  was  very 
drunken :  wherefore  she  told  him  nothing,  less  or 
more,  until  the  morning  light.  And  it  came  to  pass 
in  the  morning,  when  the  wine  was  gone  out  of 
Nabal,  that  his  wife  told  him  these  things,  and  his 
heart  died  within  him,  and  he  became  as  a  stone. 
And  it  came  to  pass  about  ten  days  after,  that  Jehovah 
smote  Nabal,  so  that  he  died. — i  Samuel  25.  36-38. 

THE  LESSON 

The  home  is  the  heart  of  a  nation's  life 
The   home   sustains   a   vital    relation   to  the    State.     More 


86  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

than  any  other  institution  it  influences  the  moral  character 
and  permanency  of  the  nation.  What  the  heart  is  to  the 
physical  body,  the  home  is  to  the  body  politic — its  real  source 
of  life.  The  surest  way  to  safeguard  the  State  is  to  protect 
the  family  from  corrupting  influences.  If  family  life  begins 
to  disintegrate  and  decay,  the  existence  of  the  nation  is 
endangered.  "To  maintain  normal  family  life,  to  restore  it 
when  it  has  been  interfered  with,  to  create  conditions  more 
and  more  favorable  to  it"  is  the  fundamental  object  of 
efficient  efforts  to  elevate  society.  Hence  to  measure  the 
influence  of  any  institution  upon  the  home  helps  to  point 
out  its  real  place  in  the  life  of  the  nation. 

Parental  responsibility 

The  present  generation  of  parents  are  the  trustees  of  human 
life.  The  responsibility  for  the  health,  education,  social  and 
industrial  efficiency,  and  moral  character  of  the  coming  gen- 
eration rests  primarily  upon  them.  The  destiny  of  the  nation 
rests  heavily  upon  these  to  whom  has  been  committed  the 
care  of  young  life.  Any  influence  that  blights  that  sense  of 
parental  responsibility  or  that  renders  these  "trustees"  un- 
able or  unfit  to  perform  their  important  duties  is  a  direct 
blow  at  the  welfare  of  society. 

The  rights  of  the  child 

The  child's  first  claim  for  protection,  care,  nourishment, 
and  an  environment  that  is  intellectually,  morally,  and  reli- 
giously stimulating  is  upon  its  parents.  But  "society  under- 
writes the  obligation"  by  providing  a  living  wage,  by  in- 
specting the  foods  that  are  put  into  the  market,  by  protecting 
life  and  guarding  health,  by  guaranteeing  liberty  and  the 
free  pursuit  of  legitimate  pleasures,  and  by  protecting  woman- 
hood. When  for  any  reason  the  natural  home  is  seriously 
impaired  the  State  feels  the  responsibility  of  respecting  these 
rights  of  the  child  and  undertakes  to  care  for  it.  In  the 
interest  of  self-preservation,  society  must  recognize  the  child's 


HOW    DRINK    INJURES     THE    HOME  87 

needs.  These  needs  should  be  supplied  in  the  home.  No 
other  institution  can  take  its  place.  Children  who  become 
State  charges  lose  from  their  lives  something  that  is  vital. 

The  home  and  the  saloon 

Hence  there  rests  upon  every  intelligent  citizen  the  re- 
sponsibility of  seeing  to  it  that  society  does  not  tolerate  the 
presence  of  any  institution  that  interferes  with  parents  doing 
their  duty.  The  influences  that  are  most  deadly  in  this  regard 
are  social  impurity,  gambling,  crime,  pauperism,  vice  in  its 
many  forms,  insanity,  industrial  inefficiency,  sickness  and 
disease.  But  these  are  all  "the  legitimate  children  of  the 
liquor  traffic ;  it  is  in  the  saloon  where  they  are  born  and 
bred.  Trace  back  the  story  of  pauperism,  crime,  vice,  in- 
sanity, disease,  and  pollution  to  their  most  prolific  source  and 
that  source  will  be  the  legalized  liquor  traffic,  manifested  in 
the  open  saloon." 

Drink  reduces  the  possible  income  of  the  home 

If  the  earnings  of  the  bread-winner  of  the  family  are 
spent  in  drink,  from  what  source  shall  the  home  derive  its 
comforts  or  even  its  necessities?  The  use  of  alcoholic 
liquors  as  a  beverage  reduces  a  man's  physical  and  mental 
ability,  renders  him  more  liable  to  sickness  and  accident,  and 
reduces  his  chances  of  finding  and  keeping  a  steady  job. 
All  this  affects  his  wages.  The  income  of  the  man  who 
drinks  is  reduced.  If  he  happens  to  be  the  one  upon  whom 
a  family  depends  for  support,  his  lack  of  productive  power 
is  apt  to  be  recorded  in  the  poverty  or  destitution  of  his 
wife  and  children.  In  reducing  the  wage-earning  capacity  of 
the  father,  the  liquor  traffic  becomes  a  robber  of  the  pros- 
perity and  comfort  of  the  home  of  which  he  is  the  head. 

Drink  reduces  the  available  income  of  the  home 

The  father  who  drinks  not  only  reduces  the  amount  of 
his  wages  but  also  further  depletes  the  amount  of  money 


88  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

that  is  available  for  the  support  of  his  family  by  spending  a 
part  of  it  for  that  which  is  neither  food  nor  shelter.  The 
annual  liquor  bill  of  the  United  States  is  approximately 
$1,750,000,000.  For  $650,000,000  you  could  buy  all  of  the 
cotton  goods  produced  in  the  United  States  for  one  year;  for 
$460,000,000  all  of  the  woolens  and  worsteds.  $435,000,000 
would  purchase  every  barrel  of  flour  milled,  and  the  potato 
crop  of  the  United  States  could  be  secured  for  $205,000,000 
more.  The  $1,750,000,000  spent  for  liquor  would  therefore 
purchase  the  total  output  of  these  four  industries. 

Some  interesting  comparisons 

"All  of  the  wheat  produced  in  our  country  in  1910  would 
pay  our  drink  bill  for  less  than  eighty-two  days. 

"All  of  the  coal  produced  the  same  year  would  pay  our 
drink  bill  less  than  eighty-three  days. 

"All  of  the  gold  mined  in  the  United  States  in  1910  would 
not  pay  twelve  days'  drink  bill.  All  of  the  silver  mined  in 
our  country  in  the  same  year  would  not  pay  five  days'  drink 
bill. 

"One  hundred  and  twenty  days'  drink  bill  would  wipe  out 
of  existence  our  entire  interest-bearing  national  debt. 

"Fifty  days'  drink  bill  would  build  the  Panama  Canal." 

Wages  paid  in  the  liquor  industry 

Nor  does  the  liquor  business  pay  in  wages,  to  those  who 
are  employed  in  the  places  of  manufacture  and  distribution, 
enough  to  wipe  out  this  charge  of  being  a  twofold  destroyer 
of  home  comforts  and  necessities.  At  its  own  estimate  it 
pays  only  fifty-four  millions  of  dollars  annually  to  its  various 
employees.  The  other  manufacturers  of  the  nation  pay 
forty-eight  times  as  much  in  wages  alone.  Mr.  Deets 
Pickett,  Research  Secretary  of  the  Temperance  Society  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  says : 

"Labor  receives  seven  and  sixty-three  hundredths 
per  cent  of  the  wholesale  value  of  liquor  produced, 


HOW    DRINK    INJURES    THE    HOME          89 

whereas  the  average  for  all  manufacturing  indus- 
tries, according  to  the  abstract  of  the  Census  of  1910, 
is  sixteen  and  fifty-seven  hundredths  per  cent.  The 
manufacturer  of  liquors  ranks  twenty-third  in  the 
proportion  of  final  wholesale  value  which  goes  to 
labor ;  that  is,  twenty-two  other  industries  pay  a  larger 
percentage  of  their  receipts  to  the  man  whose  brawn 
and  sweat  is  given  freely  for  the  day's  wages." 

Families  that  own  their  own  homes 

Families  that  live  in  their  own  homes  enjoy  a  sense  of 
security  and  permanency  which  does  not  come  to  those  who 
live  in  rented  apartments.  Moreover  they  take  greater  interest 
in  the  artistic  appearance — the  silent  teachers — of  the  house. 
In  1900  the  per  cent  of  families  who  owned  their  own  homes 
in  the  five  prohibition  States  at  that  time  was  59.1  per  cent, 
while  in  the  license  and  partially-license  States  the  per- 
centage was  45.8. 

The  saloon  zvorks  against  the  health  of  the  family 

No  generation  can,  if  it  would,  live  unto  itself.  The 
record  of  our  past  lives  is  handed  down  with  a  fearful 
accuracy  to  the  lives  that  come  after  us.  The  sins  of  the 
fathers  are  visited  upon  the  children,  not  through  any  arbi- 
trary decree  on  the  part  of  an  outraged  God,  but  by  the 
inevitable  workings  of  a  natural  law.  "Whatsoever  a  man 
soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap"  is  written  large  at  the  very 
heart  of  the  universe,  and  when  one  sows  a  habit  which 
brings  forth  a  harvest  of  weakened  nerves,  enfeebled  brain, 
diseased  tissues,  and  the  general  degeneration  which  comes 
from  alcohol,  he  must  not  complain  if  that  harvest  comes  to 
perfection  in  his  own  life  and  the  lives  of  his  descendants. 

Dr.  T.  A.  MacNicholl,  of  New  York,  who  has  made 
investigations  of  the  relation  of  alcohol  to  degeneracy,  says : 

"Within  thirty  years  the  mortality  from  chronic 
diseases  has  doubled.  Within  a  period  of  fifty-three 
years  the  country's  population  increased  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty  per  cent,  while  the  number  of  insane 


90  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

and  feeble-minded  increased  nine  hundred  and  fifty 
per  cent.  .  .  .  During  the  past  five  years  the  United 
States  birthrate  has  fallen  off  thirty-three  and  one 
third  per  cent ;  this  means  the  loss  of  a  million  babies 
a  year.  Let  this  degeneracy  continue  at  the  same 
rate  for  one  hundred  years,  and  there  will  not  be  a 
native  born  child  five  years  old  in  the  United  States." 

Dr.  MacNicholl  then  answers  the  question :  "What  is  the 
cause  of  this  degeneracy?"  as  follows: 

"A  hundred  different  intermediate  agencies  may 
contribute  to  the  undoing  of  the  race,  but  back  of 
them  all  stands  alcohol  as  the  chief  degenerative 
factor.  ..." 

This  great  burden  of  drink  is  not  borne  by  the  drinker, 
but  by  the  drinker's  children.  They  come  into  the  world 
handicapped  by  lowered  vitality.  The  report  of  a  recent 
French  investigation  showed  that  of  the  fifty-three  thousand 
children  that  died  in  one  decade  under  eleven  months  of 
age,  nearly  one  fourth  succumbed  from  lack  of  vitality,  and 
this  the  investigators  believed  to  be  largely  due  to  alcoholism 
in  the  parents. 

Of  the  children  of  drinking  parents  having  sufficient  vitality 
to  live,  a  large  part  are  handicapped  with  physical  or  mental 
weaknesses  that  hamper  them  all  through  life,  or  make  them 
an  easy  prey  to  diseases  that  carry  them  off  prematurely. 
Tuberculosis  occurs  with  marked  frequency  in  the  families 
of  drinkers,  an  indication  of  weakened  physical  resistance. 
Inability  to  withstand  fatigue  and  the  craving  for  something 
to  give  a  feeling  of  strength  is  a  reasonable  explanation  of 
one  cause  at  least  of  the  greater  tendency  to  the  formation 
of  drinking  habits  in  the  children  of  drinkers. 

The  saloon  is  the  foe  of  home's  happiness  and  integrity 

Whence  come  brawlings?  Whence  come  contentions? 
Whence  come  heart  breaks,  tears,  and  sighs?  Have  you 
ever  had  the  inexpressible  anguish  of  studying  at  first  hand 


HOW    DRINK    INJURES     THE    HOME  91 


a  drunkard's  home?  Then  you  know  that  it  is  the  fittest 
earthly  type  of  inferno.  But  even  where  the  saloon  has  not 
wrought  its  perfected  work,  where  "moderate  drinking"  only 
is  indulged  in,  alcohol  is  still  the  enemy  of  home's  happiness. 
More  quarrels  have  their  beginning  in  the  wine  glass  than 
in  any  other  one  source.  More  crooked  thinking  and  more 
crooked  deeds  come  from  partly  alcoholized  brains  than  from 
any  other.  Said  a  gentleman  to  a  physician  not  long  since: 

"I  have  all  my  life  been  accustomed  to  taking  with 
my  dinner  one  glass  of  wine.  Sometimes,  when  dining 
out,  or  when  I  have  special  guests,  I  exceed  that 
limit;  I  drink  two  or  three,  or  perhaps  more  glasses. 
I  never  do  that  that  I  am  not  at  once  conscious  of 
a  distinct  lowering  of  my  moral  tone.  I  find  myself 
uttering  sentiments  which  I  know  I  do  not  really 
believe.  I  find  myself  saying  things  which  I  know,  in 
my  best  moments,  I  could  not  uphold.  I  am  conscious 
of  a  lowering  of  my  entire  moral  tone." 

The  fact  that  his  moral  tone  was  doubtless  lowered  by 
even  the  one  glass  was  put  so  clearly  before  him  by  the 
physician  that  he  became  a  total  abstainer.  Home's  happi- 
ness, home's  purity,  home's  integrity  and  uprightness  are 
constantly  endangered  by  the  saloon. 

The  broken  homes 

From  1887  to  1906  there  were  184,568  divorces  in  the  United 
States  due  to  intemperance  on  the  part  of  husband  or  wife. 
According  to  the  Census  Bureau,  one  divorce  in  every  five 
has  intemperance  as  one  cause.  In  Chicago  and  Brooklyn 
investigations  have  been  made  to  ascertain  what  were  the 
principal  causes  of  divorces  and  family  separations.  Judge 
Gemmill,  of  the  Chicago  Court  of  Domestic  Relations,  put 
into  operation  a  system  of  recording  the  cases  of  family 
troubles  brought  to  his  court  for  settlement  from  which  he 
found  that  forty-six  per  cent  were  caused  by  drink.  No 
other  one  cause  furnished  over  fourteen  per  cent.  The 
Brooklyn  investigation,  which  was  carried  out  by  probation 


92  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

officers,  resulted  in  nearly  the  same  percentage  of  broken 
homes  due  to  drink — 45.8  per  cent.  The  Superintendent  of 
the  Bureau  of  Domestic  Relations  in  the  City  of  New  York 
told  a  Sun  reporter  that  by  far  the  most  frequent  cause  of 
the  breaking  up  of  homes  in  the  four  thousand  cases  dealt 
with  in  that  city  the  same  year  was  drink.  "The  havoc  that 
drink  plays  in  domestic  troubles  has  never  been  exaggerated," 
said  Miss  Ida  Tarbell  in  summing  up  the  evidence  in  The 
American  Magazine,  January,  1914.  In  England  the  condi- 
tion seems  to  be  even  worse,  according  to  the  testimonies 
of  divorce  court  officials.  "If  you  eliminate  the  drink  ques- 
tion you  eliminate  ninety  per  cent  of  the  cases  we  have," 
says  J.  R.  Roberts,  editor  of  "Justices'  Manual"  and  president 
of  the  Incorporated  Society  of  Justices'  Clerks.  "If  the 
drink  habit  could  be  eradicated  from  the  nation,  this  court 
might  close  its  doors,  at  any  rate  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
time,"  is  the  testimony  of  Lord  Gorell,  the  president  of  an 
English  divorce  court. 

Actual  disruption  of  the  family  on  account  of  intolerable 
conduct  due  to  drink  represents  only  the  extreme  stage. 
Many  minor  degrees  impair  more  or  less  seriously  the  irre- 
placeable function  of  the  home  in  forming  the  character  of 
a  people.  When  an  able-bodied  man  fails  to  support  the 
home  and  the  wife  and  mother  must  turn  breadwinner,  her 
possibilities  for  advancing  civilization  through  elevating  home 
influences  are  immensely  reduced.  An  investigation  of  three 
hundred  and  eighty-six  cases  of  family  desertion  in  twenty- 
five  cities  of  the  United  States,  by  Miss  Lillian  Brandt  (1905), 
showed  that  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  of  the  men  and 
forty-three  of  the  women  were  hard  drinkers.  Another 
report  by  the  Associated  Charities  of  Boston  (1910)  gives  an 
account  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-two  able-bodied  men  in 
Boston  in  one  year  who  failed  to  support  their  families. 
The  Associated  Charities  was  appealed  to  by  the  families 
for  aid  and  found  on  investigation  that  two  hundred  and 
forty-three  of  these  men  (sixty-nine  per  cent)  were  drunk- 
ards. Accounts  may  be  found  in  reports  of  social  workers  of 


HOW    DRINK    INJURES     THE     HOME  gj 

children  acting  as  family  breadwinners,  supporting  and  taking 
care  of  drunken  fathers  or  mothers,  or  both.  Heavy  as  is 
the  burden  of  such  children,  they  are  not  the  only  ones  that 
are  oppressed  by  it.  The  community  of  which  they  are  a 
part  is  decidedly  poorer  because  of  the  necessarily  dwarfed 
development  of  such  premature  burden-bearers.  This  re- 
action upon  the  community  is,  of  course,  just  retribution  for 
its  failure  to  protect  its  citizens  from  public  traffic  in  a 
brain  poison. 

The  conclusion  is  irresistible.  It  is  the  duty  of  all 
who  care  for  the  homes  of  the  nations  to  put  themselves  in 
battle  array  against  the  home's  arch  foe.  By  example  and 
influence,  by  voice  and  vote,  by  prayer  and  by  work,  every 
home  and  every  inmate  of  a  home  who  cares  for  the  welfare 
of  the  nation  and  the  establishment  of  Christ's  Kingdom 
upon  earth  should  declare  "Saloons  must  go,"  that,  thereby, 
better  homes  may  come.  With  liquor  abolished,  wages  will 
increase  and  a  better  financial  support  of  the  family  will 
thereby  come.  Take  the  money  that  goes  for  drink  and 
spend  it  for  the  home  and  a  new  era  of  comfort  will  result. 
Stop  drink  and  children  will  be  born  healthier,  reared  under 
better  conditions,  arrive  at  a  higher  plane  of  moral  develop- 
ment. Grinding  poverty,  that  leaves  no  room  for  proper 
relaxation,  will  no  longer  be  the  force  it  now  is,  working  as 
it  does  against  the  happiness  of  the  home.  Abolish  the  liquor 
traffic  and  the  worst  hindrance  standing  in  the  way  of  the 
natural  expression  of  the  God-given  parental  instinct  will 
be  removed. 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

Why  is  the  family  the  fundamental   social  institution? 

Which  is  the  more  important  in  the  making  of  citizens,  the 
home  or  the  public  school? 

Of  what  service  should  the  home  be  to  the  child? 

Which  is  more  prudent  for  the  State,  to  prevent  the  dis- 
integration of  homes,  or  to  build  orphanages  and  asylums  to 
take  care  of  the  products  of  wrecked  homes? 


94  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

Wherein  does  the  saloon  affect  the  home  directly? 

Wherein  does  it  injure  the  home  indi  ectly? 

What  portion  of  a  man's  wages  should  go  to  the  support 
of  his  wife  and  children? 

How  much  of  it  has  he  a  right  to  spend  foolishly? 

If  our  annual  liquor  bill  were  used  to  buy  houses  at  three 
thousand  dollars  each,  how  many  families  could  thus  be 
supplied? 

How  is  it  that  the  saloon  costs  the  State  twice  as  much  as 
the  license  fees  amount  to? 

Has  a  mother  the  moral  right  to  ask  the  State  to  protect 
the  welfare  and  happiness  of  her  home? 

What  effect  does  alcohol  have  on  the  marriage  bond? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

Bring  out  the  importance  of  the  home;  its  influence  upon 
the  children  and  parents.  Show  that  the  character  of  the 
home  depends  upon  the  parental  sense  of  responsibility  and 
parental  resources,  financial,  intellectual,  and  moral. 

With  a  full  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  the  home, 
demonstrate  that  drink  reduces,  in  many  ways,  the  resources 
without  which  a  home  is  impossible,  and  injures  the  parents' 
sense  of  responsibility  and  fitness  to  perform  their  duties. 

Let  the  discussion  become  a  direct,  personal  appeal  to  the 
manhood  or  womanhood  of  the  members  present,  with  a 
forceful  presentation  of  the  call  to  protect  innocent  and 
helpless  -children  from  the  results  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS  CAN  Do 

Have  three  members  read  and  report  on  Chapters  II,  V, 
and  VIII  of  Devine's  "The  Family  and  Social  Work." 

Have  a  representative  of  some  such  organization  as  the 
Associated  Charities  address  the  class  on  the  effects  of  the 
saloon  upon  the  homes  of  your  community. 

Plan  and  inaugurate  a  campaign  to  save  the  children  of 
your  community  from  the  evil  results  of  poverty. 


LESSON   X 

THE  USE  OF  ALCOHOL  A  SOURCE  OF 
POVERTY 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

It  is  not  for  kings,  O  Lemuel,  it  is  not  for  kings  to 

drink  wine; 

Nor  for  princes  to  say,  Where  is  strong  drink? 
Lest  they  drink,  and  forget  the  law, 
And  pervert  the  justice  due  to  any  that  is  afflicted. 
Give  strong  drink  unto  him  that  is  ready  to  perish, 
And  wine  unto  the  bitter  in  soul : 
Let  him  drink,  and  forget  his  poverty, 
And  remember  his  misery  no  more. 

— Proverbs  31.  4-7. 

Woe  to  thee,  O  land,  when  thy  king  is  a  child,  and 
thy  princes  eat  in  the  morning !  Happy  art  thou,  O 
land,  when  thy  king  is  the  son  of  nobles,  and  thy 
princes  eat  in  due  season,  for  strength,  and  not  for 
drunkenness  ! — Ecclesiastes  10.  17,  18. 

THE  LESSON 
What  is  poverty? 

Every  individual  should  be  supplied  with  sufficient  nourish- 
ing food,  clothing,  shelter,  and  opportunities  for  physical 
and  social  relaxation  to  be  able  to  be  maintained  at  the 
highest  point  of  mental  and  physical  efficiency.  The  man 
who  is  poorly  fed  cannot  accomplish  the  amount  of  work  of 
which  he  is  naturally  capable.  The  body  must  have  adequate 
protection  from  excessive  cold  and  heat.  Otherwise  physical 
efficiency  is  impaired.  It  is  possible  for  an  individual  to  be 
deprived  of  these  resources  necessary  to  highest  mental  and 
physical  efficiency  and  yet  not  experience  the  pain  and  suffer- 

95 


96  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

ing  that  result  from  destitution.  Efficiency  on  one  hand  and 
destitution  on  the  other  mark  the  boundaries  of  what  may 
be  termed  poverty. 

Poverty  and  income 

It  does  not  follow,  necessarily,  that  the  man  of  small  income 
is  the  poor  man,  and  the  one  of  large  income  he  who  main- 
tains the  highest  efficiency.  A  man  may  have  a  salary  or 
wage  that  is  adequate  to  supply  the  necessary  food  and 
shelter  and  opportunity  to  play,  but  for  some  reason  fail  to 
spend  it  for  these  things.  He  may  have  an  income  that  is 
adequate  and  yet  spend  so  much  of  his  money  for  that 
which  is  not  bread,  such  a  large  portion  of  his  income  for 
that  which  does  not  satisfy  his  real  needs,  that  he  is  no 
better  off  physically  than  the  one  whose  income  is  inadequate. 
With  the  majority  of  people  it  is  a  problem  not  so  much  of 
earnings  as  it  is  of  judicious  spending  and  of  saving.  After 
the  other  things  are  paid  for,  what  amount  is  left  for  the 
essential  things?  is  with  many  the  vital  question.  With  many 
a  man  it  comes  to  be  a  question  not  of  how  much  is  con- 
sumed, but  rather  of  how  much  real  food  is  consumed. 

The  principle  illustrated 

A  special  inquiry  on  the  alcohol  factor  in  social  conditions 
was  recently  conducted  by  Mr.  George  Blaikloch,  Barrister- 
at-Law,  for  the  Committee  of  the  National  Temperance 
League  of  England.  The  report,  as  given  in  the  summer  of 
1914  issue  of  the  National  Temperance  Quarterly,  describes 
a  large  number  of  cases  of  poverty  of  which  the  following 
is  typical : 

"A  man  earning  twenty-seven  shillings  per  week 
lived  in  the  slums.  He  became  converted  and  signed 
the  pledge.  In  one  month  he  removed  to  a  better 
house  in  a  respectable  district.  In  two  years  he 
refurnished  the  house,  and  with  two  of  his  children 
working,  at  the  end  of  six  years  he  paid  in  cash  fifty 
pounds  for  a  piano." 


ALCOHOL  A  SOURCE  OF  POVERTY    97 

The  report  shows  that  such  "cases  are  typical  of  hundreds 
engaged  in  the  woolen  trade.  Among  the  miners  of  the 
district,  who  earn  good  wages,  there  is  a  large  proportion 
who  spend  from  ten  shillings  upwards  on  drink,  and  their 
homes  suffer  correspondingly  as  to  furniture  and  other 
desirable  comforts."  Cases  were  found  where  there  were 
only  two  or  three  pieces  of  furniture  in  the  house,  where 
the  family  had  to  sleep  on  the  floor,  though  the  income,  if 
judiciously  spent,  would  have  been  adequate  to  have  pro- 
vided for  ordinary  needs.  The  experience  of  those  who 
work  in  the  slums  is  that  as  soon  as  they  get  the  people 
living  there  to  give  up  drink  they  see  them  move  away  to 
better  quarters. 

Higher  wages  inadequate 

Labor  leaders  are  coming  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  higher 
wages  alone  will  not  cure  the  ills  from  which  wage  earners 
are  suffering.  The  famous  labor  leader,  John  F.  Cuneen, 
says : 

"Labor  unions  engage  halls,  distribute  literature, 
go  to  considerable  expense  for  the  discussion  of 
economics,  but  at  such  gatherings  there  is  one  phase 
of  the  economic  question  upon  which  silence  is 
maintained,  and  that  is  the  liquor  question.  This 
question  ought  to  be  the  foremost  in  discussion  as  to 
how  to  solve  it  rightly.  It  will  do  the  labor  unions 
little  good  if  they  fight  to  increase  the  working- 
man's  wages  if  the  workingman  turns  over  to  the 
liquor  traffic  the  increased  wage  he  receives." 

Alcohol  and  pauperism 

In  Stockholm,  ninety  per  cent  of  the  paupers  in  the  work- 
houses are  there  as  the  result  of  alcohol  and  fifty  per  cent 
of  those  who  receive  outdoor  relief  need  it  for  the  same 
reason.  As  a  usual  thing,  people  do  not  drink  because  they 
are  poor  but  are  poor  because  they  drink.  In  Manchester, 
England,  Alderman  McDougall,  inquiring  into  the  causes  of 
pauperism,  found  that  in  fifty  per  cent  of  the  four  hundred 


g8  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

and  four  individual  paupers  investigated,  drink  was  the  cause. 
Other  investigations  that  have  been  made  tell  the  same  story. 
Replies  to  questions  sent  lately  to  every  almshouse  in  the 
United  States  show  that  at  least  fifty-one  per  cent  of  the  in- 
mates of  almshouses  become  paupers  through  drink.  Warden 
Roberts,  of  the  New  York  almshouse  on  Blackwell's  Island, 
considers  that  nine  tenths  of  the  inmates,  numbering  2,593, 
came  there  through  drink. 

Tudor  Trevor,  an  English  sociologist,  says  that  seventy 
per  cent  of  the  paupers  of  England,  costing  the  nation 
$50,000,000  annually,  are  the  result  of  alcoholic  drinking. 

Sickness,  non-employment,  desertions,  imprisonment,  and 
inefficiency  are  reckoned  as  causes  of  poverty.  These  evils 
are  consequences  of  beer  and  whiskey  drinking. 

Is  poverty  of  itself  a  calamity? 

Those  who  have  had  wide  experience  in  the  work  of 
organized  charities  do  not  consider  poverty,  in  itself,  a 
calamity  from  which  it  is  impossible  to  recover,  especially 
if  health  and  moral  character  are  not  impaired.  Sickness 
and  accident  may  have  caused  the  income  temporarily  to 
become  inadequate.  But  it  is  usually  the  policy  of  the 
United  Charities  never  to  allow  a  family  to  be  broken  up 
because  of  poverty  alone.  Temporary  relief  may  be  given  and 
with  that  all  that  may  be  needed  is  to  arouse  ambition, 
stimulate  interest  and  self-activity,  and  create  new  ideals. 
Where  these  factors  are  united  with  physical  strength,  poverty 
can  usually  be  overcome.  But  where,  in  addition  to  poverty, 
there  is  also  the  habit  of  liquor  drinking,  as  long  as  that 
habit  remains  in  control,  the  case  is  hopeless.  For  under 
such  circumstances  the  moral  appeal  falls  upon  deaf  ears 
and  broken,  impotent  wills.  Efforts  are  erratic.  The  one 
who  drinks  is  unfitted  for  the  long,  steady,  hard  pull  from 
poverty  to  economic  independence.  Dr.  Wm.  E.  Shaw,  of 
Cincinnati,  in  a  letter  in  the  Lancet  Clinic,  July  10,  1909, 


ALCOHOL  A  SOURCE  OF  POVERTY    99 

"My  observation  of  those  who  used  alcohol  for 
the  purpose  of  forgetting  misery  and  poverty  con- 
vinced me  more  than  thirty  years  ago  that  the  best 
way  to  escape  poverty  and  misery  was  to  begin  the 
battle  of  life  as  a  total  abstainer,  and  I  have  seen  no 
reason  to  change  my  mind." 

Drink  causes  a  lack  of  the  desire  to  work 

One  effect  of  alcohol  upon  many  who  are  even  moderate 
drinkers  is  to  rob  them  of  the  delight  in  work  which  is  so 
frequently  characteristic  of  those  who  are  prosperous.  The 
normal  man  and  woman  may  dislike  drudgery  but  find  a 
present  good  in  the  performing  of  the  necessary  tasks.  But 
the  habitual  drinker  finds  no  pleasure  in  toil.  It  has  lost 
its  charm  for  him.  In  the  Twenty-eighth  Annual  Report 
of  the  Associated  Charities  of  Boston  the  statement  is  made 
that  "most  drunkards  are  bitterly  afraid  of  hard  work.  The 
trip  to  the  island,  after  the  first  sense  of  shame  has  worn 
off,  becomes  a  mere  quiet  loafing  time  at  the  expense  of  the 
city.  But  the  threat  of  Bridgewater  has  sent  more  than  one 
East  Boston  drunkard  to  his  knees,  begging  for  mercy. 
Bridgewater  means  ten  to  fifteen  hours  of  hard  work  each 
day." 

Records  of  a  juvenile  court 

J.  J.  McManaman,  chief  probation  officer  of  Chicago's 
Juvenile  Court,  in  summarizing  the  year's  work,  said:  "Whis- 
key causes  poverty.  Poverty  causes  crime.  That  summar- 
izes the  situation."  The  chief  causes  of  so  many  children's 
being  in  court  were  pointed  out  to  be  intemperance  and 
neglect  rather  than  misfortune.  A  study  of  the  cases  showed 
that  while  the  poverty  of  thirteen  of  the  children  was  due  to 
the  immorality  of  the  mother,  that  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
was  due  to  drunkenness  of  the  father,  ninety-two  to  drunken- 
ness of  the  mother,  and  sixty-three  to  the  drunkenness  of 
both.  Fully  seventy-five  per  cent  could  be  traced  to  their 
origin  in  the  neglect  and  drunkenness  of  parents. 


ioo  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

The  teetotaler  immune  from  the  workhouse 

Dr.  E.  Claude  Taylor,  in  trying  to  find  out  the  number  of 
abstainers  who  were  present  in  workhouses,  asked  of  those 
who  had  first-hand  knowledge  the  following  question:  "Have 
you  any  (adult)  life  abstainers  in  your  workhouse?"  The 
answers  were  strikingly  unanimous :  "None  known."  "Out 
of  sixteen  hundred  I  have  found  one."  "No."  "Very  few, 
and  they  seem  to  live  longer  than  the  others."  "Never 
heard  of  any."  "Not  more  than  .3  per  cent."  "Occasionally 
met  with;  one  or  two  in  now."  The  extreme  that  is  said  on 
the  other  side  is  "Yes,"  and  "A  large  number  of  the  adult 
inmates  assert  that  they  are  life-abstainers,  or  at  the  very 
most  very  moderate  drinkers."  "On  two  occasions  I  have 
gone  into  the  dining-room  of  my  own  workhouse  and 
asked  any  who  had  been  abstainers  any  length  of  time  to 
hold  up  a  hand.  On  one  occasion  not  one  hand  was  held  up ; 
on  the  other  one  an  old  lady  of  eighty-five  years  did  so,  as 
being  a  teetotaler  for  forty  years,  and  one  half-witted  woman 
claimed  to  be.  Apparently  it  is  sufficient  to  be  a  teetotaler  to 
insure  almost  certain  safeguard  from  being  driven  into  the 
workhouse." 

The  case  in  Massachusetts 

In  a  remarkable  report  on  "The  Relation  of  the  Liquor 
Traffic  to  Pauperism,  Crime,  and  Insanity,"  Mr.  Horace  G. 
Wadlin,  former  chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor 
of  Massachusetts,  thus  summarizes  the  facts  ascertained: 

"Out  of  thirty-two  hundred  and  thirty  paupers — 
this  being  the  total  number  found  in  the  institutions 
during  twelve  consecutive  months — twenty-one  hun- 
dred and  eight,  or  about  sixty-five  in  every  hundred 
(65.26  per  cent)  were  addicted  to  the  use  of  liquor. 
The  excessive  drinkers  numbered  five  hundred  and 
five,  or  about  sixteen  in  every  one  hundred  (15.63 
per  cent)  of  all  the  paupers.  The  total  abstainers 
numbered  eight  hundred  and  sixty-six,  or  about 
twenty-seven  in  every  one  hundred  (26.81  per  cent) 
of  all  the  paupers.  Of  the  total  abstainers,  however, 


ALCOHOL  A  SOURCF  OF  POVERTY    101 

four  hundred  and  twenty-nine  were  minors,  two 
hundred  and  eighty-one  being  under  ten  years  of  age. 
There  were  also  thirty-one  minors  addicted  to  the 
use  of  liquor.  Excluding  all  the  minors,  whether 
total  abstainers  or  not,  we  have  twenty-seven  hundred 
and  fifty-two  paupers  of  adult  years,  of  whom  two 
thousand  and  seventy-seven,  or  about  seventy-five  in 
every  one  hundred  (75-47  per  cent),  were  addicted  to 
the  use  of  liquor,  including  five  hundred  and  four 
excessive  drinkers  and  fifteen  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  drinkers  not  classed  as  excessive. 

"Of  the  whole  number  of  paupers,  47.74  per  cent, 
or  nearly  forty-eight  in  every  one  hundred,  had  one 
or  both  parents  intemperate. 

"Of  the  whole  number  39.44  per  cent,  or  about 
thirty-nine  in  every  one  hundred,  attributed  their 
pauperism  to  their  own  intemperate  habits;  about 
five  in  every  one  hundred  considered  their  pauperism 
due  to  the  intemperance  of  their  parents,  one  or  both ; 
and  several  in  every  one  hundred  attributed  their 
pauperism  to  the  intemperance  of  those  upon  whom 
they  were  dependent,  other  than  parents." 

Alcohol  the  indirect  cause  of  burdens 

It  is  a  fact  recognized  by  leading  medical  authorities  that 
the  children  of  drinking  parents  are  especially  likely  to 
contract  tuberculosis.  In  the  International  Prize  Essay, 
"Tuberculosis,"  in  1908,  there  occurs  this  statement  by  Dr. 
S.  A.  Knoff:  "Alcoholism  must  be  considered  the  most 
active  cooperator  of  the  deadly  germ  of  tuberculosis."  An 
investigation  conducted  by  Professor  G.  von  Bunge,  of  Basel, 
Switzerland,  showed  that  of  one  hundred  and  forty-nine 
fathers  who  were  occasional  drinkers,  8.7  per  cent  of  the 
children  were  tuberculous.  Of  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine 
moderate  drinkers,  the  percentage  of  tuberculous  children 
was  10.7.  Sixty-seven  fathers  who  were  immoderate  drinkers 
were  investigated  and  it  was  found  that  16.4  per  cent  of 
the  children  had  tuberculosis.  27.7  per  cent  of  the  children 
of  sixty  fathers  who  were  confirmed  drunkards  were  found 
to  be  afflicted  with  the  white  plague.  The  poverty  which 
results  from  the  use  of  alcohol  makes  it  necessary  frequently 


102  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

for  families  to  live  in  rooms  that  have  poor  ventilation  and 
that  are  overcrowded.  The  sanitary  conditions  are  apt  to  be 
poor.  The  conditions  of  the  drinker's  home  make  his  family 
especially  susceptible  to  this  and  other  diseases.  Thus  drink 
not  only  decreases  the  amount  of  money  available  to  satisfy 
normal  needs  and  unfits  the  wage  earner  to  carry  the  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  burdens  of  supporting  a  family,  but  it 
also  increases  the  tendency  toward  sickness,  deformity,  feeble- 
mindedness, and  degeneracy.  The  added  burden  of  caring 
for  those  who  thus  fall  below  what  is  normal  is  a  prolific — 
though  indirect — cause  of  poverty. 

Increasing  the  fixed  charges 

The  question  may  well  be  asked,  Who  pays  the  increased 
cost  to  society,  in  the  police  departments,  courts,  State  hos- 
pitals, prisons,  jails,  care  of  the  insane  and  paupers  that  are 
occasioned  by  the  liquor  business?  It  is  estimated  that  in 
New  York  City  alone  $1,650,000  is  expended  annually  to 
arrest  and  care  for  cases  of  intoxication.  It  costs  that  one 
city  nearly  $100,000  annually  just  to  try  the  persons  charged 
with  intoxication.  The  custodial  care  of  persons  arrested 
for  intoxication  costs  a  quarter  of  a  million  annually.  The 
entire  treatment  of  public  intoxication  in  New  York  is 
$2,412,000  every  year.  The  license  fees  pay  about  one  half 
of  the  actual  cost  of  drink  to  the  State.  This  vast  sum 
must  be  collected  in  various  forms  of  taxation.  The  burden 
is  shared  by  the  man  who  pays  rent  and  buys  food.  Thus 
the  poor  man  finds  it  is  more  difficult  to  supply  himself  and 
those  dependent  upon  him  with  the  necessities  of  life.  By 
adding  to  the  public  expenses  the  liquor  business  and  its 
results  add  financial  burdens  to  the  already  overburdened 
citizen. 

The  principle  of  prevention 

In  the  broad  modern  movement  to  relieve  society  of  its  ills 
and  its  burdens,  the  emphasis  is  being  placed  upon  preventive 


ALCOHOL  A  SOURCE  OF  POVERTY    103 

measures.  The  medical  profession  is  giving  much  thought 
not  only  to  the  best  methods  of  curing  disease,  but  also  to 
those  of  discovering  and  removing  the  sources  of  disease. 
If  an  epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  is  found  in  a  community, 
efforts  are  directed  toward  curing  the  cases  that  the  con- 
tagion has  already  caused.  But  efforts  are  also  concentrated 
upon  the  work  of  making  it  impossible  for  new  cases  to 
appear.  This  principle  applied  to  charitable  work  has  revo- 
lutionized the  methods  formerly  adopted.  The  scientific  spirit 
makes  it  necessary  to  trace  out  and  get  rid  of  the  causes  of 
poverty  as  well  as  to  give  direct  and  immediate  assistance 
to  the  poor.  Is  the  intelligent  contributor  to  the  Associated 
Charities  or  to  the  Church  Poor  Fund  doing  his  full  duty  if 
he  gives  money  to  relieve  the  poor  of  the  church  or  com- 
munity without  doing  something  to  terminate  the  period  of 
need  in  those  who  receive  his  alms?  If  the  liquor  business 
is  directly  or  indirectly  responsible  for  half  of  the  pauperism, 
if  its  vital  connection  with  poverty  has  been  scientifically 
demonstrated,  then  there  rests  upon  charity  workers  the 
prudential  responsibility  of  getting  rid  of  that  business. 
This  is  a  preventive  measure.  It  is  removing  the  source. 
In  the  interest  of  efficiency  it  is  necessary. 

SOME   PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

What  is  poverty? 

What  is  the  relation  of  poverty  to  income? 

What  has  been  the  experience  of  those  who  work  in  the 
slums  regarding  the  giving  up  of  drink  by  those  living  in 
poverty  ? 

What  is  the  attitude  of  labor  leaders  toward  the  demand 
for  higher  wages? 

What  proportion  of  pauperism  has  been  found  to  be  the 
result  of  drink? 

Why  do  the  workers  for  the  United  Charities  look  upon 
poverty  as  being,  in  itself,  an  inadequate  cause  for  breaking 
up  a  home? 


104  THE    LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

How  does  drink  affect  one's  desire  to  work? 

What  do  the  records  of  a  juvenile  court  show  as  to  the 
relation  between  drink  and  crime  among  young  people? 

What  is  usually  the  teetotaler's  relation  to  the  workhouse? 

How  is  drink  related  to  pauperism  in  Massachusetts? 

In  what  way  does  alcohol  increase  the  financial  burden  of 
those  poor  people  who  do  not  drink? 

To  what  extent  does  alcohol  cooperate  with  tuberculosis? 

What  else  should  a  philanthropist  do  besides  giving  money 
to  relieve  a  case  of  poverty? 

Is  a  church  justified  in  using  the  poor  fund  to  fight  the 
liquor  business? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

First  define  what  poverty  is,  showing  its  relation  to  income. 

Point  out  the  effect  of  illegitimate  or  imprudent  expendi- 
tures upon  poverty.  Show  what  a  large  proportion  of 
pauperism  is  due  to  drink. 

Let  the  climax  of  the  discussion  center  in  showing  that 
in  the  interest  of  the  prevention  of  poverty  and  the  more 
extreme  forms  of  destitution  and  pauperism,  the  church  and 
charity  worker  must  spend  some  of  their  energy  in  getting 
rid  of  the  liquor  business. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS  CAN  Do 

Have  some  well-informed  social  worker  address  the  class 
on  the  relation  of  drink  to  poverty  in  our  community. 

Appoint  one  or  two  members  of  the  class  to  study  the 
subject  of  the  poor  of  the  church  and  report  their  findings 
at  a  subsequent  meeting. 

Have  a  special  study  made  on  the  relation  of  the  liquor 
business  to  the  high  cost  of  living. 

If  those  who  are  appointed  to  look  up  facts  concerning 
the  influence  of  alcohol  find  that  records  are  not  carefully 
kept  by  the  societies  or  organizations  consulted,  let  them 
tactfully  urge  the  importance  of  having  such  records  de- 
pendable, up-to-date,  and  available. 


LESSON  XI 

THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE 
SALOON 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

Brethren,  even  if  a  man  be  overtaken  in  any  tres- 
pass, ye  who  are  spiritual,  restore  such  a  one  in  a 
spirit  of  gentleness;  looking  to  thyself,  lest  thou  also 
be  tempted.  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so 
fulfill  the  law  of  Christ.  For  if  a  man  thinketh  himself 
to  be  something  when  he  is  nothing,  he  deceiveth  him- 
self. But  let  each  man  prove  his  own  work,  and  then 
shall  he  have  his  glorying  in  regard  of  himself  alone, 
and  not  of  his  neighbor.  For  each  man  shall  bear  his 
own  burden. 

But  let  him  that  is  taught  in  the  word  communicate 
unto  him  that  teacheth  in  all  good  things.  Be  not  de- 
ceived ;  God  is  not  mocked :  for  whatsoever  a  man 
soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.  For  he  that  soweth 
unto  his  own  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption; 
but  he  that  soweth  unto  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit 
reap  eternal  life.  And  let  us  not  be  weary  in  well- 
doing: for  in  due  season  we  shall  reap,  if  we  faint 
not.  So  then,  as  we  have  opportunity,  let  us  work 
that  which  is  good  toward  all  men,  and  especially  to- 
ward them  that  are  of  the  household  of  the  faith. — 
Galatians  6.  i-io. 

THE  LESSON 
The  saloon  and  sociability 

As  a  means  of  expressing  a  feeling  of  sociability,  the  use 
of  alcoholic  drinks,  it  is  well  to  state  frankly,  is  quite 
thoroughly  fixed  in  a  large  part  of  our  current  social  customs. 
Among  certain  classes  liquors  have  been  used  for  ages  at 
social  functions,  in  clubs,  in  informal  meetings,  and  in  the 
home.  Of  recent  years  the  saloon,  the  liquor-selling  restau- 
rant, and  the  hotel  have  largely  taken  the  place  of  home  use, 
with  the  result  that  excessive  drinking  has  been  increased. 

105 


io6  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

Frequently  the  family  has  been  broken  up,  while  at  the 
same  time  a  relatively  small  number  of  individuals  do  the 
drinking.  Without  regard  to  whether  it  is  good  or  bad,  or 
whether  a  better  means  of  sociability  might  not  readily  be 
procured,  alcoholic  liquors  do  serve  with  a  great  many 
people  as  a  popular  method  of  trying  to  gain  the  friendship 
of  companions  and  of  expressing  a  feeling  of  fellowship. 

A  service  in  spite  of  intoxication 

In  this  sense  the  saloon  appeals  to  a  fundamental  social 
instinct — sociability.  It  supplies  something  really  necessary 
in  human  life,  it  is  true,  but  in  quality  a  very  shoddy  article 
at  a  very  high  cost  of  money  and  morals.  The  saloon  has 
seized  upon  social  want  and  proceeds  to  supply  it  in  its  own 
way.  The  public-house  problem  is  largely,  by  no  means 
wholly,  a  question  of  forgotten  needs,  that  is,  of  sociability 
needs.  This  ground  the  saloon  has  rilled,  or  usurped,  and 
these  needs  are  there  satisfied,  not  by,  but  in  spite  of,  alcohol 
and  intoxication. 

The  test  of  ultimate  worth 

Methods  for  the  solution  of  the  saloon  problem  as  a  part 
of  the  larger  liquor  problem,  social  and  political,  as  we 
have  it,  must  take  the  sociability  feature  into  consideration. 
If  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  usefulness  in  the  saloon,  it 
should  be  known.  There  is  no  use  in  going  at  the  work 
blindly.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  saloon  is  a  powerful 
competitor  with  better  means  of  sociability,  and  a  source  of 
social  vice  to  the  community,  the  good  which  it  may  do  can 
be  no  excuse  for  the  greater  evils.  Palliative  measures  will 
be  found  to  be  both  insufficient  and  wrong.  The  welfare  of 
society  as  a  whole  and  the  effects  of  the  saloon  upon  it  must 
be  the  only  final  test  of  its  social  worth. 

Patrons  of  the  "social  glass3' 

The  strongest  plea  that  can  be  made  for  liquor  is  that  it 
furnishes  social  pleasure.  This  it  does,  first,  by  means  of 


THE    SOCIAL    PHASE    OF    THE    SALOON    107 

the  "social  glass,"  to  the  two  or  three  or  more  taking  it 
together,  and,  second,  by  means  of  the  saloon  serving  as  a 
social  center  for  certain  classes  of  people  who  either  prefer 
the  kind  of  society  to  be  found  there,  or  who  have,  or  who 
can  find,  no  other  place  open  to  them.  The  people  who 
respond  in  any  important  degree  to  the  sociability  features 
of  the  saloon  are : 

(1)  The  more  well-to-do  or  wealthy  classes  who  distinctly 
prefer   the   sort   of    sociability   that   accompanies   or    follows 
alcoholic  intoxication. 

(2)  The  outcast  and  degenerate  of  other  classes  who  seek 
their  associates  among  the  ex-criminals,  embryonic  criminals, 
loafers,   professional    beggars,    etc.,    of   the    low-down   grog- 
geries. 

(3)  A   relatively   small,   but   important   class,   of   business 
men  who  use  the  saloon  as  a  place  for  business  appointments. 

(4)  There  yet  remain  the  wage-earning  classes — that  large 
number  of  people  who  regard  the  saloon  as  a  place  of  social 
intercourse. 

Among  this  last  group  the  real  problem  is  found.  There 
are  multitudes  of  houses,  shacks?  and  apartments  that  only 
with  superior  taste  and  ingenuity  can  be  transformed  into 
homes.  But  both  of  these  qualities  are  lacking.  Moreover 
the  financial  resources  make  it  impossible  to  entertain  friends 
at  home.  There  are  no  surroundings  suggestive  of  hospi- 
tality and  sociability.  Those  occupying  this  sort  of  home 
furnish  the  largest  number  in  the  total  per  capita  consumption 
of  liquors.  Their  opportunities  for  social  enjoyment,  apart 
from  the  saloon,  are  more  limited,  and  so  they  are  compelled 
to  depend  upon  it  more  and  more.  In  a  word,  it  is  this 
wage-earner,  living  on  the  verge  of  poverty,  and  he  alone, 
who  may  claim  the  saloon  as  in  any  sense  a  real  "social 
center." 

"The  poor  mans  club" 
Here  he  finds  relaxation  after  a  long  day  in  the  dust  and 


io8  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

roar  of  the  factory  such  as  the  crowded  and  slouchy  rooms 
he  calls  home  will  not  furnish.  Here  he  can  escape  the 
crying  children  and  get  the  companionship  of  men  interested 
in  the  same  things  in  which  he  is  interested.  There  are 
games,  cards,  pool,  reports  from  the  races  and  prizefights, 
sometimes  music,  and  a  warm  place  in  which  to  enjoy  them. 
There  is  no  feeling  of  constraint;  on  the  contrary,  the 
manager  is  glad  to  have  him  remain  so  long  as  he  is  spending 
money.  All  these  enjoyments  of  an  evening  can  be  pur- 
chased for  the  exceedingly  small  price  of  a  few  beers,  or 
even  for  a  single  glass,  with  a  free  lunch  thrown  in.  The 
saloon  is  a  democratic  institution,  open  freely  to  everyone, 
and  criticizing  no  one.  It  has  therefore  come  to  be  called 
"the  poor  man's  club."  Efforts  to  do  away  with  it  are 
resented  as  an  attack  upon  the  poor  man  by  the  more  well- 
to-do.  There  is  a  strong  and  unreasonable  opposition,  often 
amounting  to  hatred,  among  laboring  men,  especially  the 
more  unskilled,  against  temperance  and  prohibition  workers, 
for  this  very  reason.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  is  fostered 
by  the  liquor  dealers  themselves,  and  an  appeal  to  class 
antagonism  is  made  to  support  the  business. 

Reasons  for  popularity 

The  low  cost  for  which  the  saloon  furnishes  its  numerous 
attractions  is  one  of  the  strong  features  in  making  it  popular. 
One  reason  why  laboring  men  do  not  form  clubs  of  their 
own  is  because  they  cannot  afford  the  membership  dues  that 
would  be  required  to  pay  for  well-furnished  quarters  and 
equipment  for  a  limited  group  of  men.  Yet  no  one  doubts 
for  a  minute  that  the  saloon  keeper  does  all  this  on  a  wider 
basis  than  that  of  a  club  purely  as  a  business  venture,  often 
furnishing  to  lodges,  labor  unions,  and  other  organizations 
rooms  heated  and  lighted,  near  the  saloon,  absolutely  free 
of  cost.  It  is  inconceivable  that  the  money  which  pays  for 
the  drinks,  plus  the  "attractions"  provided  by  the  saloon, 
would  not  pay  for  the  attractions  alone  if  the  drinks  were 


THE    SOCIAL    PHASE    OF    THE    SALOON     109 

absent.  How  can  we  help  concluding  that  while  the  saloon 
now  acts  as  a  sort  of  poor  man's  club,  it  is  the  club  which, 
taking  advantage  of  his  poverty  and  of  his  desire  for  intoxi- 
cants, makes  him  pay  more  for  his  social  life  than  any  other 
class  of  people  with  moderate  or  low  earnings.  As  a  promi- 
nent Boston  liquor  dealer  has  said : 

"If  the  saloon  is  the  poor  man's  club,  then  I  con- 
tend that  the  dues  are  too  high ;  it  costs  him  too  much 
to  keep  the  club  steward  in  a  prosperous  condition, 
and  therefore  should  be  disbanded  for  the  benefit 
of  the  club  members,  and  their  families,  and  the 
community  at  large.'* 

Counter  attractions 

"The  negative  and  destructive  method  employed  in  social 
reform  movements  should  be  accompanied  or  followed  by 
positive  and  constructive  ones."  The  application  of  this 
sociological  principle  to  the  saloon  question  calls  for  "some 
broad,  rational,  and  practical  method  of  counterbalancing  the 
various  motives  that  lead  men  to  patronize  the  saloon."  The 
idea  of  a  "substitute,"  however,  in  the  opinion  of  Professor 
J.  M.  Barker,  of  Boston  University,  should  not  be  limited  to 
a  rival  business  in  competition  with  the  saloon,  a  social 
institution  run  next  door  or  across  the  street  to  draw  men 
away  from  it,  but  to  satisfy  the  motives,  so  far  as  they  are 
worthy  ones,  or  indicate  any  real  need,  in  other  or  more 
natural  ways. 

Suggested  substitutes 

There  are  many  organizations  and  clubs,  both  philanthropic 
and  self-supporting,  which  provide  healthful  amusement  and 
recreation.  These,  intentionally  or  unintentionally,  serve  as 
counter  attractions  for  the  saloon  to  some  extent.  But  the 
great  need  of  our  large  cities  is  for  more,  many  more,  and 
better  ones — those  in  which  there  will  be  more  inducements 
as  well  as  more  of  a  feeling  of  freedom  on  the  part  of  those 


i  io  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

for  whom  they  are  established.  The  most  successful  of 
these  institutions  at  present  are  moving-picture  shows,  coffee- 
houses, lunchrooms,  reading-rooms,  bowling  alleys  and  other 
athletic  games  not  in  connection  with  saloons,  recreation 
centers,  social  settlements,  the  better  grade  of  theaters  and 
parks,  especially  the  small  parks  in  dense  residence  neighbor- 
hoods. These  all  supply  opportunity  for  sociability  of  a  pure 
kind  away  from  the  temptations  of  the  saloon.  But  their 
number  is  all  too  meager  and  the  hours  of  closing  often  too 
early.  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  to  some 
extent  serve  in  this  capacity,  but  their  field  is  largely  limited 
to  clerical  and  railroad  men  and  strange  young  men  of  the 
better  class  coming  from  the  country  and  small  towns.  They 
do  not  to  any  marked  extent  counteract  the  attractions  of  the 
saloon  to  those  who  are  in  greatest  need  of  help. 

Complete  absence  of  liquors 

The  essential  principle  of  this  movement  must  be  the 
supplying  of  healthful  recreation  and  relaxation  free  from 
the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors.  There  can  be  no  temporary 
surrender  of  this  principle  in  favor  of  the  lighter  alcoholics, 
or  increased  temptation  to  the  young  is  sure  to  follow.  If 
the  lightest  beer  should  be  served  in  connection  with  the  best 
of  amusements,  it  might  be  a  good  means  of  weaning  off  the 
old  toper,  but  it  would  be  the  fatal  attracting  influence  that 
would  start  thousands  of  young  men  and  boys  to  acquiring 
the  alcohol  habit  under  respectable  surroundings.  Anything 
that  does  this  is  sure  to  increase  later  the  number  of  regular 
saloon  patrons  who  go  there  for  liquors  alone.  The  absence 
of  liquors  must  be  complete,  or  the  attraction  will  be  toward, 
instead  of  away  from,  the  saloon. 

The  demands  of  the  self-respecting  man 

The  man  who  takes  his  recreation  and  social  pleasure  at 
the  saloon  feels  that  he  is  paying  for  what  he  gets.  And  he 
certainly  is  paying  full  price !  The  saloon  is  not  run  for 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  SALOON  in 

charity,  but  for  business.  The  independent  wage-earner,  even 
if  he  is  quite  poor,  knows  this  and  appreciates  it.  If  he  is 
at  all  self-respecting,  he  resents  the  doing  of  anything  for  him 
by  outsiders  with  the  air  of  charity  about  it.  The  rightly 
organized  counter  attraction  will  take  note  of  this  fact  by 
requiring  that  the  accommodations  which  it  gives  shall  be 
good,  and  that  payment,  at  least  in  part,  shall  be  insisted 
upon.  But  the  man  himself  must  remember  that  a  self- 
respecting  man  cannot  secure  the  social  enjoyments  he  so 
much  needs  while  so  large  a  share  of  his  meager  earnings 
goes  for  beer. 

Fixing  responsibility 

The  task  of  providing  counter  attractions  rightly  belongs 
to  the  school,  the  church,  the  popular  lecture,  the  night  and 
trade  schools,  the  trade  unions,  the  private  clubs  and  organ- 
izations and  the  thousand  and  one  forms  of  social  enjoyment 
open  to  healthful  society.  This  moral  responsibility  cannot 
be  shifted.  It  is  the  saloon  that,  for  financial  ends,  has 
usurped  this  ground  and  that  tends  to  run  sociability  into 
vice. 

No  substitute  possible 

With  substitution  measures  alone,  the  power  of  the  saloon 
to  corrupt  society  will  remain  practically  unbroken.  Its 
power  to  offer  attractions  is  unlimited.  "The  saloons  that 
attract  most  men  are  those  that  harbor  gambling  and  shelter 
prostitutes.  The  saloons  with  concert  halls,  where  so  many 
men  and  women  are  lured  to  drink  and  dance,  have  their 
walls  decorated  with  suggestive  and  indecent  pictures,  and 
one  hears  songs  of  the  most  revolting  character.  The  whole 
atmosphere  reveals  a  total  lack  of  modesty  and  common 
decency."  No  philanthropic  or  semi-philanthropic,  or  even 
legitimate  business  enterprise,  can  counteract  the  fascination 
of  the  average  saloon,  with  such  "attractions,"  combined  with 
the  appetite  for  liquors,  as  it  offers  to  vast  numbers  of  people 


ii2  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

in  all  grades  of  society.  The  saloon  is  not  the  "poor  man's 
club."  It  is  primarily  the  drink-loving  man's  club,  whether 
poor  or  rich.  So  long  as  alcohol  is  one  of  the  forces  of  the 
saloon  there  is  and  can  be  no  substitute  for  it.  Furthermore, 
social  welfare  demands  that  there  shall  be  no  "substitute." 
The  change  must  be  absolute. 

Drink  the  chief  attraction 

The  following  bit  of  testimony  is  exceedingly  valuable  as 
showing  the  attitude  of  that  class  of  men  most  dependent 
of  all  upon  the  saloon  for  their  social  enjoyment  if  they  are 
to  have  any  at  all.  Mr.  C.  H.  Stocking,  of  Minneapolis, 
superintendent  of  the  Union  City  Mission,  on  December  4, 
1905,  conducted  a  meeting  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
most  of  whom  lived  in  lodging  houses,  and  all  of  whom  were 
regular  drinkers.  The  object  was  a  free-for-all  discussion  of 
the  saloon  and  substitutes  for  it.  Specific  questions,  after 
abundant  discussion,  were  voted  upon  as  follows : 

"Do  men  first  go  to  the  saloon  to  enjoy  a  social 
hour,  or  do  they  go  there  to  take  a  drink?"  The 
vote  was,  drink,  fifty;  social  hour,  fifteen. 

"If  all  the  saloons  in  the  city  ceased  to  sell  liquor, 
but  kept  every  attraction  they  now  have,  could  they 
retain  one  tenth  of  their  customers?"  Only  eight 
voted  affirmatively. 

"How  many  of  the  men  here  to-night  go  to  the 
saloon  for  the  sake  of  the  liquor  sold  there?"  One 
hundred  and  five  hands  were  raised. 

"Can  you  suggest  any  substitute  for  the  saloon?" 
The  vote  stood,  "Yes,  thirty;  No,  fifty." 

On  further  discussion,  a  clean-kept  lodging  house  with 
opportunity  for  amusements  at  a  reasonable  rate  seemed  to 
be  most  desired.  A  few  wanted  places  where  pure  liquors 
could  be  sold.  But  all  agreed  upon  one  thing — that  nothing 
furnishing  the  accommodations  and  attractions  and  comforts 
of  the  saloon  with  intoxicating  liquors  left  out  would  be  of 


1 


THE    SOCIAL    PHASE    OF    THE    SALOON    113 

any  special  interest  to  them.     The  other  things  were  good, 
but  they  would  not  take  the  place  of  the  drink. 

Why  the  drink  habit  is  begun 

The  medical  and  surgical  report  of  the  Bellevue  and  allied 
hospitals  of  New  York,  published  in  1904,  gives  the  following 
answers  given  by  two  hundred  and  forty-six  patients  to  the 
question,  "Why  did  you  begin  to  drink?" 

Sociability — 52.5  per  cent. 
Trouble — 13  per  cent. 
Medical  use — 9.3  per  cent. 
Occupation — 7  per  cent. 
Taught  by  elders — 7  per  cent. 
Out  of  work — 5  per  cent. 
Unknown — 5  per  cent. 
To  be  thought  sporty — 1.2  per  cent. 

The  saloon  antagonistic  to  man's  social  life 

Man  is  incurably  a  social  being.  He  is  restless  if  alone. 
To  seek  out  and  find  those  of  his  own  kind  is  natural  to  him. 
And  when  he  is  with  his  fellows,  he  uses  various  means  of 
expressing  his  sociability.  Because  the  saloon  has  been  the 
meeting  place  of  large  numbers  of  men — especially  of  those 
who  are  poor  and  who  have  no  other  congenial  place  to 
which  to  go — their  instinct  for  sociability  has  been  the  point 
of  approach  for  the  liquor  interests.  The  saloon  has  capital- 
ized man's  love  of  friends  and  yearning  for  social  intercourse. 
The  drinking  of  alcoholic  beverages  has  produced  feelings 
that  seemed  to  harmonize  with  sociability.  The  ignorant  or 
careless  youth  has  thus  had  the  drink  habit  fastened  upon 
him.  Then  has  followed  the  deplorable  result  of  his  being 
robbed  of  the  highest  capacity  for  friendship  and  social  inter- 
course. Hence  the  fight  against  the  saloon  should  carefully 
guard  against  any  plan  that  deprives  men  of  their  oppor- 
tunities to  express  their  feelings  of  sociability.  The  effort  to 
take  away  the  easy  opportunity  to  get  drink  should  never  be 
interpreted  as  an  effort  to  repress  man's  true  social  instinct. 


ii4  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

Should  a  man  cultivate  sociability?     Why? 

What  responsibility  has  society  in  meeting  this  social  need 
by  the  maintenance  of  public  institutions? 

Are  ordinary  people  capable  of  furnishing  adequate  amuse- 
ment for  themselves? 

Do  they  know  how  to  play,  or  must  they  have  others  play 
for  them? 

In  what  way  is  it  possible  to  solve  the  saloon  problem  and 
take  no  account  of  the  opportunity  it  presents  for  sociability? 

Who  patronize  the  saloon? 

Which  of  these  classes  is  most  dependent  upon  it? 

Why  does  the  saloon  appeal  the  most  strongly  to  the  poor 
laborer  ? 

Why  are  prohibition  advocates  hated  by  patrons  of  the 
saloon? 

What  is  the  difference  between  a  "substitute"  and  a  "rival"  ? 

Why  is  liquor-selling  in  the  "substitute"  unjustifiable? 

What  is  the  chief  attraction  in  the  saloon? 

Does  this  prove  that  it  is  an  unsocial  institution? 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

Bring  out  clearly  that  man  is  a  social  being. 

Man's  social  needs  make  some  kind  of  social  institution 
necessary. 

The  saloon  is  meeting  these  needs  in  part,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  its  chief  aim  is  unsocial;  that  is,  liquor-selling. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS  CAN  Do 

Be  on  the  lookout  for  strangers. 

Study  the  social  needs  of  the  men  of  our  community. 
Try  definitely  to  meet  these  needs  on  week  nights  as  well 
as  on  Sundays. 


LESSON  XII 

SOME  PAST  FAILURES  AND  THE 
LESSONS  THEY  TEACH 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

Woe  to  the  crown  of  pride  of  the  drunkards  of 
Ephraim,  and  to  the  fading  flower  of  his  glorious 
beauty,  which  is  on  the  head  of  the  fat  valley  of 
them  that  are  overcome  with  wine !  Behold,  the  Lord 
hath  a  mighty  and  strong  one;  as  a  tempest  of  hail, 
a  destroying  storm,  as  a  tempest  of  mighty  waters 
overflowing,  will  he  cast  down  to  the  earth  with  the 
hand.  The  crown  of  pride  of  the  drunkards  of 
Ephraim  shall  be  trodden  under  foot :  and  the  fading 
flower  of  his  glorious  beauty,  which  is  on  the  head 
of  the  fat  valley,  shall  be  as  the  first-ripe  fig  before 
the  summer;  which  when  he  that  looketh  upon  it 
seeth,  while  it  is  yet  in  his  hand  he  eateth  it  up.  In 
that  day  will  Jehovah  of  hosts  become  a  crown  of 
glory,  and  a  diadem  of  beauty,  unto  the  residue  of 
his  people;  and  a  spirit  of  justice  to  him  that  sitteth 
in  judgment,  and  strength  to  them  that  turn  back  the 
battle  at  the  gate. 

And  even  these  reel  with  wine,  and  stagger  with 
strong  drink;  the  priest  and  the  prophet  reel  with 
strong  drink,  they  are  swallowed  up  of  wine,  they 
stagger  with  strong  drink ;  they  err  in  vision,  they 
stumble  in  judgment.  For  all  tables  are  full  of  vomit 
and  filthiness,  so  that  there  is  no  place  clean. 

Whom  will  he  teach  knowledge?  and  whom  will 
he  make  to  understand  the  message?  them  that  are 
weaned  from  the  milk,  and  drawn  from  the  breasts? 
For  it  is  precept  upon  precept,  precept  upon  precept; 
line  upon  line,  line  upon  line;  here  a  little,  there  a 
little. 

Nay,  but  by  men  of  strange  lips  and  with  another 
tongue  will  he  speak  to  this  people ;  to  whom  he  said, 
This  is  the  rest,  give  ye  rest  to  him  that  is  weary; 
and  this  is  the  refreshing :  yet  they  would  not  hear. 


ii6  THE    LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

Therefore  shall  the  word  of  Jehovah  be  unto  them 
precept  upon  precept,  precept  upon  precept ;  line  upon 
line,  line  upon  line ;  here  a  little,  there  a  little ;  that 
they  may  go,  and  fall  backward,  and  be  broken,  and 
snared,  and  taken. 

Wherefore  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye  scoffers, 
that  rule  this  people  that  is  in  Jerusalem :  Because 
ye  have  said,  We  have  made  a  covenant  with  death, 
and  with  Sheol  are  we  at  agreement;  when  the  over- 
flowing scourge  shall  pass  through,  it  shall  not  come 
unto  us ;  for  we  have  made  lies  our  refuge,  and  under 
falsehood  have  we  hid  ourselves :  therefore  thus 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Behold,  I  lay  in  Zion  for  a 
foundation  a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a  precious  corner 
stone  of  sure  foundation :  he  that  believeth  shall  not 
be  in  haste. — Isaiah  28.  1-16. 

THE  LESSON 
Lincoln's  hesitation 

When  it  was  first  proposed  to  impose  a  federal  tax  upon 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors,  Abraham 
Lincoln  looked  upon  the  proposition  with  profound  misgiv- 
ings. He  was  afraid  that  by  the  payment  of  large  sums  of 
money  for  internal  revenue,  the  men  engaged  in  that  business 
would  acquire  a  political  and  social  standing  not  then  ac- 
corded them.  Before  the  liquor  business  was  thus  legalized, 
the  men  engaged  in  it  were  naturally  looked  down  upon. 
Even  though  the  real  nature  of  alcohol  was  not  then  under- 
stood, some  of  its  manifest  ultimate  results  were  apparent. 
In  many  communities  those  who  sold  drink  to  their  fellow 
citizens  could  not  hope  to  mingle  in  the  best  society.  Their 
political  influence  was  small.  Lincoln  feared  that  the  making 
of  such  men  legally  respectable  by  the  federal  government 
would  tend  to  give  them  the  political  and  social  respecta- 
bility of  which  they  were  not  worthy.  The  man  who  pays 
large  amounts  of  money  which  the  federal  government  re- 
ceives and  uses  feels  a  new  sense  of  dignity  and  importance. 
He  is  supposed  to  relieve  all  citizens  of  a  part  of  their  burden 
of  taxation.  He  makes  political  and  social  demands  that, 


LESSONS   TAUGHT   BY   PAST   FAILURES      117 

under  other  conditions,  would  be  impossible  and  absurd.  But 
the  financial  exigencies  of  the  national  government  were  such 
that  extraordinary  measures  had  to  be  taken  to  raise  revenue. 
It  was  this  pressure  that  led  the  far-sighted  President  to 
hesitate  before  consenting  to  such  measures. 

The  development  of  the  license  idea 

Since  that  time  the  original  purpose  of  license  has  been 
modified.  Immediately  after  the  privilege  of  manufacturing 
and  selling  liquor  on  a  large  scale  had  been  legalized,  the 
liquor  interests  became  politically  active  and  commercially 
aggressive.  Then  it  was  that  communities,  in  the  interest  of 
self-defense  from  the  results  of  alcohol,  perverted  the  original 
purpose  of  license  which  was  primarily  that  of  raising  greatly 
needed  revenue  and  used  it  as  a  regulative  and  restrictive 
measure.  In  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  the  fundamental 
absurdity  of  it  all  is  clearly  seen.  The  very  method  under 
which  the  liquor  business  had  grown  rapidly  was  used  to 
suppress  or  regulate  it.  The  stimulus  which  had  caused  it 
to  become  commercially  aggressive  was  increased  under  a 
policy  of  higher  license  fees.  The  amounts  of  money  paid 
for  the  privilege  of  conducting  the  business  had  given  that 
business  a  standing  before  the  law  that  previously  it  had  not 
enjoyed.  Those  amounts  were  increased  with  the  hope  that 
the  influence  of  the  business  would  be  less  pernicious.  It 
has  been  under  the  license  system  that  the  liquor  business 
has  come  to  be  a  political  peril,  a  social  corrupter,  a  com- 
mercial vampire,  an  organizer  and  stimulater  of  the  most 
dangerous  and  unpatriotic  elements  in  our  national  life. 

Domination  of  commercialism 

The  evil  results  of  the  stimulation  of  the  motive  of  com- 
mercialism under  the  license  system  can  never  be  measured. 
When  a  saloon  keeper  has  to  pay  one  thousand  dollars  for 
the  privilege  of  selling  liquor  during  twelve  months,  that 
added  financial  pressure  tends  to  make  him  lose  even  the 


u8  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

relatively  small  humane  and  benevolent  impulses  which  other- 
wise he  might  have  expressed.  The  cold-blooded  way  in 
which  liquor  is  sold  to  men  who  have  already  lost,  for  the 
time,  the  use  of  their  natural  or  acquired  moral  judgments, 
and  whose  prudential  judgments  are  evidently  no  longer  with 
them,  is  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  aspects  of  so-called 
civilization.  When  the  commercial  instinct,  under  the  pres- 
sure of  the  high  license  system,  has  come  completely  to 
dominate  the  life  of  the  brewer  or  saloon  keeper,  the  suffer- 
ings of  innocent  children,  the  physical  corruption  of  those 
yet  unborn,  the  depriving  of  children  of  much  needed  educa- 
tional advantages,  the  robbing  of  the  family  of  its  needed 
food  and  shelter  cause  no  hesitation,  no  sigh  of  regret.  A 
naturally  strong  man's  hand  may  shake  as  he  reaches  out  for 
the  glass  that  will  unfit  him  for  his  work,  decrease  his  power 
of  endurance,  make  him  liable  to  accident,  but  the  dominating 
love  of  money  blinds  the  liquor  dealer  to  it  all 

The  liquor  business  and  foreign  missions 

Thus  the  humanitarian  impulses  become  too  weak  to  give 
moral  tone  to  the  liquor  dealer's  conduct.  He  takes  no 
interest  in  the  great  benevolent  enterprises.  While  the 
churches  are  sending  millions  of  money  and  hundreds  of 
precious  lives  to  lift  the  burdens  of  superstition,  ignorance, 
and  suffering  from  the  shoulders  of  non-Christian  nations, 
he  capitalizes  their  ignorance,  their  interest  in  everything 
coming  from  a  nominally  Christian  nation,  and  creates  among 
the  defenseless  heathen  peoples  new  markets  for  his  poison. 
In  some  sections  of  the  Far  East  the  total  influence  of  the 
impact  of  American  civilization  thus  far  has  been  degrading 
rather  than  uplifting.  Bishop  Homer  C.  Stuntz,  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  after  years  of  experience  on 
mission  fields,  declares  that  one  of  the  greatest  victories  that 
could  come  to  the  missionary  enterprise  would  be  the  elimina- 
tion of  the  shrewd,  aggressive,  heartless  spirit  of  commercial- 
ism from  the  liquor  business  of  America.  Some  leaders  have 


LESSONS   TAUGHT   BY   PAST   FAILURES      119 

gone  even  farther  than  this  in  their  recommendation  that 
the  Christian  missionary  forces  might  well  temporarily  turn 
part  of  their  money  and  influence  into  the  enterprise  of 
ridding  our  so-called  Christian  civilization  of  the  liquor 
business. 

What  greed  has  wrought 

Thus  under  the  license  system  the  liquor  dealer  or  manu- 
facturer has  come  to  look  upon  his  business  in  terms  of 
money  only.  Greed  has  become  the  tyrant  of  his  life.  He 
cares  not  how  much  suffering  and  loss  result  from  his 
business  as  long  as  the  money  in  large  enough  quantities 
comes  into  his  till.  Having  paid  his  license  fee,  consciously 
or  unconsciously  he  throws  the  moral  responsibility  for  the 
results  of  his  business  upon  the  government.  He  feels  free 
to  prosecute  his  business  with  all  of  the  ingenuity  and  perse- 
verance he  possesses.  He  advertises  extensively  and  shrewdly. 
He  strives  to  secure  strategic  locations  for  his  saloon.  Any 
movement  to  close  his  place  of  business  on  certain  days  or 
hours  is  stubbornly  resisted.  He  tries  to  make  his  contact 
with  men  and  women  as  broad  and  as  suggestive  as  possible. 
The  experiences  of  others  in  the  same  business  are  at  his 
disposal  and  he  makes  use  of  them.  Thus  the  selling  of 
alcoholic  beverages  has  developed  into  an  art,  and  the  poor, 
defenseless  consumer  is  unable  to  withstand  the  temptations 
with  which  he  is  surrounded.  The  deliberate  and  skillful 
efforts  to  win  new  recruits  reveal  the  moral  degeneracy  of 
those  who,  under  the  license  system,  have  become  absolutely 
dominated  by  money-making  impulses. 

License  fees  do  not  cover  the  cost  of  liquor  drinking 

But  the  license  system  has  not  only  caused  the  abnormal 
commercialization  of  the  liquor  business,  it  also  has  failed  in 
that  the  original  purpose  which  caused  it  to  be  introduced  is 
no  longer  achieved.  It  is  no  longer  a  source  of  income  to 
the  State.  The  liquor  business,  under  this  system,  has 


120  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

developed  in  such  ways  that  for  every  dollar  received  in 
license  fees  two  dollars  must  be  paid  out  in  caring  for  those 
who,  because  of  alcohol  and  its  effects,  are  thrown  back  upon 
the  State  for  care  and  support.  An  investigation  was  made 
in  1908  for  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Care  and  Control 
of  Feeble-minded  in  Birmingham,  England.  It  was  found 
that  in  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  cases  investigated  41.6 
per  cent  had  one  or  both  parents  who  were  alcoholic.  The 
public  care  of  the  feeble-minded  children  whose  defects  were 
due  to  the  use  of  alcohol  by  their  parents  must  be  reckoned 
upon  before  one  can  say  whether  or  not  the  license  system 
is  a  financial  success.  Another  careful  investigation  showed 
that  eighty-two  and  one  half  per  cent  of  the  children  of 
alcoholic  parents  were  defective — that  is,  were  idiotic,  de- 
formed, epileptic,  or  otherwise  degenerate.  If  alcoholism 
leads  to  poverty,  and  if  such  parents  are  unable  to  care  for 
such  offspring,  they  become  public  charges.  The  money  to 
pay  for  their  care  cannot  be  taken  out  of  the  license  fees, 
for  they  are  inadequate.  Either  philanthropy  or  the  State 
must  pay  the  bill. 

Moral  losses  of  the  State 

But  there  are  some  things  which  the  State  or  community 
loses  because  of  alcohol  which  money  cannot  replace  and  for 
which  it  is  not  an  adequate  compensation.  The  financial 
cost  of  the  increased  crime,  pauperism,  sickness,  and  help- 
lessness is  not  to  be  compared  with  those  other  losses  which 
cause  moral,  economic,  educational,  and  religious  resources 
to  become  depleted.  When  a  business  comes  to  be  so  ag- 
gressive and  skillful  as  to  become  a  national  menace  because 
of  its  undermining  the  very  foundations  upon  which  the 
permanency  and  stability  of  that  nation  rests,  the  situation 
becomes  infinitely  more  serious  than  any  financial  loss  can 
be.  No  amount  of  money  can  repay  the  harm  done  when 
future  American  citizens,  who  have  recently  arrived  from 
foreign  homes,  live  for  the  first  and  most  impressionable 


LESSONS   TAUGHT   BY   PAST   FAILURES      121 

years  in  an  atmosphere  of  political  corruption  such  as  that 
which  is  found  in  the  ordinary  saloon.  Under  a  democratic 
form  of  government,  the  hope  of  the  State  is  the  intelligence, 
physical  welfare,  and  moral  character  of  the  ordinary  citizen. 
Any  system  that  permits  an  institution  to  exist  and  to 
corrupt  and  destroy  the  character  of  the  voter  in  whose 
hands  is  the  destiny  of  the  nation  is  self-destructive.  It 
cannot  but  end  in  ultimate  failure. 

Centralization  of  political  corruption 

Another  weakness  of  the  license  system  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  it  has  made  possible  the  concentration  of  political 
influences  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men  of  unpatriotic  motives. 
The  political  boss  whose  motives  are  predominantly  immoral 
is  a  political  danger.  When  the  government  offers  for  sale 
the  privileges  of  selling  alcoholic  beverages  the  money  con- 
sideration is  such  as  to  make  it  possible  for  the  brewers  and 
distillers  to  gain  control  of  a  number  of  saloons.  It  often 
happens  that  the  man  who  wishes  to  become  a  saloon  keeper 
has  not  enough  money  to  pay  for  the  license,  the  costly 
fixtures,  and  the  rent.  So  the  brewer  makes  him  his  agent. 
The  man  with  large  capital  provides  for  the  initial  outlay 
and  thereby  comes  into  control.  Since  the  saloon  is  the 
rallying  point  for  corrupt  political  influences,  it  is  easily  seen 
how  this  control  by  the  brewer  leads  to  the  centralization  of 
dangerous  political  factors  into  the  hands  of  those  who  have 
lost  their  interest  in  the  public  welfare. 

False  sense  of  security 

Again,  the  license  system  has  stood  in  the  way  of  a  final 
solution  of  the  liquor  problem,  for  it  has  caused  many  in- 
telligent voters  to  have  a  false  sense  of  security.  Men  have 
voted  for  high  license,  thinking  thereby  to  restrict  or  to 
control  properly  the  sale  of  liquor  and  have  consequently 
been  led  to  look  with  indifference  upon  really  corrective 
measures.  They  have  believed  a  falsehood  and  have  thus 


122  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

become  prejudiced  and  unable  to  give  a  just  judgment  con- 
cerning the  situation.  To  this  one  fact  more  than  to  any 
other,  in  some  States,  is  due  the  tardiness  and  weakness  of 
reliably  educative  campaigns.  Any  great  reform  must  be 
preceded  by  years  of  popular  education.  The  facts  must  be 
put  in  attractive  form  and  scattered  broadcast.  Methods  of 
education  suited  to  the  local  conditions  must  be  discovered 
and  applied.  Men  must  be  given  opportunities  to  get  hold 
of  the  facts  and  to  study  them.  B.ut  before  an  educative  cam- 
paign adequate  to  prepare  for  the  final  and  actual  solution 
of  the  liquor  problem  is  possible,  the  prejudices  and  mis- 
judgments  that  have  grown  up  around  the  license  system 
must  be  overcome. 

The  failure  properly  to  recognise  man's  social  nature 

Another  lesson  which  past  experience  has  taught  is  that 
the  community  must  feel  the  responsibility  for  providing 
wholesome  public  places  to  meet  natural  social  needs.  In 
many  cities  much  of  the  infamous  success  of  the  saloon  has 
been  due  to  the  fact  that  it  has  offered  a  place  where  men 
and  women  could  easily  meet  others  of  their  own  kind.  But 
why  should  such  places  of  public  gathering  be  poisoned  with 
the  atmosphere  of  alcohol?  Why  should  man's  normal 
instinct  of  sociability  be  the  impulse  that  leads  him  to  the 
very  place  where  that  instinct  is  perverted  and  immeasurably 
degraded?  It  is  not  necessary  that  centers  which  are  fur- 
nished with  all  necessary  social  attractions,  supply  alcoholic 
drinks.  Sociability  is  not  dependent  upon  drinking.  Ex- 
periments have  been  made  showing  "clearly  that  what  most 
people  really  want  is  social  intercourse  in  a  suitable  place, 
without  vexatious  limitations,"  and  "free  from  fussy  inter- 
ference." In  the  city  of  Letchworth,  England,  where  such 
centers  were  successfully  maintained,  there  were  no  "drink 
trains"  taking  the  people  to  other  nearby  cities  where  liquors 
could  be  bought,  trade  was  not  driven  away,  drinking  in  the 
homes  was  not  increased,  drinking  places  "on  the  fringe"  of 


LESSONS   TAUGHT    BY    PAST    FAILURES      123 

the   territory   thus   ministered   to    did   not   multiply.      On   the 
contrary,   six  in  that  locality  had  to  go  out  of  business. 

The  need  of  temperance  education 

Still  another  lesson  which  the  history  of  the  movement 
thus  far  has  taught  is  that  a  nation-wide,  intelligent,  practical, 
and  persistent  campaign  of  popular  education  is  necessary. 
For  years  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  has 
taught  the  boys  and  girls  the  dangers  of  intemperance. 
Their  motto  has  been,  "If  we  save  the  children  to-day  we 
shall  have  saved  the  nations  to-morrow."  But  many  of  the 
economic,  political,  social,  and  criminal  aspects  of  the  liquor 
business  are  beyond  the  comprehension  of  children.  The 
years  of  education  have  laid  the  basis  for  a  new  campaign, 
giving  to  the  voters  of  the  nation  the  facts  that  should  guide 
them  in  performing  their  immediate  duties.  Back  of  the 
successful  Foreign  Missionary  enterprise  is  a  systematic  cam- 
paign of  education.  The  people  of  the  churches,  for  the 
most  part,  are  informed  concerning  the  needs  and  plans  of 
the  Missionary  Boards.  The  voters  of  the  nation  and  those 
who  are  responsible  for  public  opinion  will  not  rise  to  meet 
successfully  the  modern  crisis  unless  a  more  aggressive  and 
far-reaching  system  of  temperance  education  is  carried  on. 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

What  was  Lincoln's  attitude  toward  the  proposition  tc 
raise  revenue  by  a  tax  upon  liquor? 

How  has  the  original  license  idea  been  altered? 

What  are  some  of  the  evil  results  of  the  spirit  of  com- 
mercialism that  has  characterized  the  license  system? 

What  is  the  significance  of  liquor  exportation  to  non- 
Christian  countries? 

When  the  motive  of  greed  dominates  a  liquor  seller,  how 
does  he  conduct  his  business? 

To  what  extent  do  the  license  fees  cover  the  entire  cost 
of  drink? 


(24  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

What  moral  losses  have  resulted  from  the  system  of  grant 
ing  licenses? 

How  has  this  system  made  possible  the  centralization  oi 
political  corruption? 

How  has  it  stood  in  the  way  of  the  final  solution  of  the 
liquor  problem? 

How  has  the  saloon  appealed  to  man's  social  instincts? 

Is  it  wise  to  abolish  the  saloon  and  not  recognize  these 
social  needs  of  the  community? 

Why  is  a  new  campaign  of  temperance  education  needed: 

CLASS  DISCUSSION 

The  purpose  of  the  position  of  this  lesson  in  the  entire 
course  is  to  prepare  the  members  of  the  class  for  the  one  that 
follows.  While  it  is  well  to  emphasize  the  three  mistakes 
of  (i)  trying  to  regulate  the  liquor  business  by  means  of 
license,  (2)  disregarding  the  natural  social  needs  of  the 
community,  and  (3)  the  failure  to  conduct  a  suitable  cam- 
paign of  education,  special  stress  should  be  placed  upon  the 
first.  It  is  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  license  system  as 
such  that  should  be  made  clear.  The  various  points  that 
indicate  what  constitutes  the  weakness  of  that  system  should 
be  brought  out  with  sufficient  rapidity  to  insure  their  all 
being  presented. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS  CAN  Do 

Collect  information  showing  how  the  license  system  has 
failed  in  our  community  (if  saloon  licenses  are  granted), 
and  have  this  information  in  suitable  form  and  ready  to  be 
used  in  the  connection  with  the  next  vote  on  the  license 
question. 

Have  some  one  investigate  what  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  is  doing  in  the  way  of  providing  substitutes  for  the 
saloons.  Report  to  the  class. 

Plan  a  local  campaign  of  education  on  the  modern  and 
scientific  aspects  of  the  liquor  problem. 


LESSON   XIII 

AN  AMENDMENT  TO  THE  CONSTI- 
TUTION OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

THE  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCE 

And  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth:  for  the 
first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  are  passed  away;  and 
the  sea  is  no  more.  And  I  saw  the  holy  city,  new 
Jerusalem,  coming  down  out  of  heaven  from  God, 
made  ready  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband.  And 
I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of  the  throne  saying,  Behold 
the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  he  shall 
dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  his  peoples,  and 
God  himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their  God : 
and  he  shall  wipe  away  every  tear  from  their  eyes ; 
and  death  shall  be  no  more;  neither  shall  there  be 
mourning,  nor  crying,  nor  pain,  any  more:  the  first 
things  are  passed  away.  And  he  that  sitteth  on  the 
throne  said,  Behold,  I  make  all  things  new.  And  he 
saith,  Write:  for  these  words  are  faithful  and  true. 
And  he  said  unto  me,  They  are  come  to  pass.  I  am 
the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  end. 
I  will  give  unto  him  that  is  athirst  of  the  fountain 
of  the  water  of  life  freely.  He  that  overcometh  shall 
inherit  these  things;  and  I  will  be  his  God,  and  he 
shall  be  my  son.  But  for  the  fearful,  and  unbelieving, 
and  abominable,  and  murderers,  and  fornicators,  and 
sorcerers,  and  idolaters,  and  all  liars,  their  part  shall 
be  in  the  lake  that  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone; 
which  is  the  second  death. — Revelation  21.  1-8. 

THE  LESSON 
Cooperation  on  a  grand  scale 

Step  by  step,  against  tremendous  difficulties  and  the  most 
terrific  opposition,  the  forces  that  have  aimed  to  prohibit  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors  for  beverage  pur- 
poses have  made  their  way.  The  Prohibition  Party,  The 

125 


126  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  The  Anti-Saloon 
League,  The  Good  Templars,  The  Anti-License  Leagues, 
and  many  other  organizations,  each  in  its  own  way  and  with 
admirable  courage  and  self-sacrifice,  have,  at  last,  come  to 
see  eye  to  eye.  One  grand  common  purpose  now  is  placed 
before  them,  and  all,  with  renewed  hope  and  enthusiasm, 
are  making  splendid  contributions  to  the  final  victory. 

Progress  by  State  legislation 

It  was  very  natural  that  the  first  line  of  attack  should  be 
the  saloons  in  the  rural  districts.  In  almost  every  State 
this  program  was  followed  out,  until  to-day  it  is  difficult  to 
find  a  retail  liquor  establishment  outside  of  incorporated 
villages  or  cities. 

The  next  step,  naturally,  was  against  the  liquor  traffic  in 
the  incorporated  villages  of  the  several  States,  and  as  a 
result  of  the  work  which  has  been  done  along  this  line, 
through  the  medium  of  local  option  laws,  municipal  ordinances 
and  court  decrees,  there  are  approximately  sixteen  thousand 
incorporated  villages  in  the  United  States  under  no-license. 

The  next  step  was  the  effort  to  clean  up  the  counties,  and 
as  a  result  of  the  county  local  option  laws  which  have  been 
put  into  force  during  the  past  few  years,  of  the  twenty-eight 
hundred  and  fifty-six  counties  in  the  United  States,  over 
seventeen  hundred  have  abolished  the  saloons. 

The  next  step  in  the  States  containing  large  cities  was  the 
fight  against  the  liquor  traffic  in  these  centers  of  population, 
while  the  next  step  in  the  rural  States  was  naturally  for 
State-wide  Prohibition. 

As  a  result  of  these  efforts,  there  are  to-day  more  than 
five  hundred  cities  having  a  population  of  five  thousand  or 
more,  where  saloons  have  been  abolished,  and  almost  two 
hundred  cities  having  a  population  of  ten  thousand  or  more 
now  under  no-license.  There  are,  moreover,  fourteen  States 
with  an  aggregate  population  of  almost  twenty  millions  where 
the  people  have  adopted  Prohibition. 


AMEND    THE    CONSTITUTION  127 


Progress  under  federal  legislation 

The  fight  to  secure  federal  legislation,  as  well  as  the  en- 
forcement of  anti-liquor  laws  already  on  the  federal  statute 
books,  has  been  in  many  respects  much  more  difficult  than 
the  struggle  in  the  several  States.  Little  by  little,  however, 
the  federal  government  has  come  to  recognize  and  respond 
to  the  demands  of  the  people.  The  Prohibition  of  the  sale  of 
liquors  to  Indians  and  in  the  Indian  countries  has  been 
enforced  in  the  past  few  years  as  never  before.  The  canteen 
has  been  excluded  from  the  navy  and  the  army.  The  sale 
of  liquors  in  State  and  national  soldiers'  homes  has  become 
a  thing  of  the  past.  Liquor-selling  in  the  national  Capitol  at 
Washington  has  been  prohibited.  The  stringent  anti-liquor 
laws  in  Alaska  during  the  past  few  years  have  been  enforced. 
The  C.  O.  D.  shipments  of  intoxicating  liquor  by  express 
companies  and  other  interstate  carriers  have  been  stopped, 
and  numerous  other  measures  against  the  evils  resulting  from 
the  sale  and  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  have  been  put  into 
effect. 

In  spite  of  all  this  progress,  however,  the  federal  government 
until  now  has  given  its  protection  to  speakeasy  keepers,  blind 
pig  operators,  and  anti-liquor  law  violators  generally  in  the 
several  States,  through  the  channels  of  interstate  commerce. 
The  temperance  forces  for  twelve  years  have  been  trying  to 
secure  an  enactment  by  Congress  that  would  permit  the 
States  through  their  police  powers  to  enforce  their  own  anti- 
liquor  laws  without  the  interference  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment through  the  medium  of  interstate  commerce.  After 
long  years  of  persistent  and  determined  effort,  the  Kenyon- 
Webb  bill  prohibiting  from  interstate  commerce  the  shipment 
of  intoxicating  liquors  intended  to  be  used  in  violation  of 
law,  has  been  enacted,  and  has  become  law. 

The  next  step 

The  logical  next  step  in  the  progress  of  this  temperance 
movement  is  the  submission  by  Congress  to  the  several  States 


128  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

of  an  amendment  to  the  federal  constitution,  which,  when 
ratified  by  three  fourths  of  the  States,  will  prohibit  the  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  throughout  the  nation. 
The  constitution  provides  that  any  amendment  to  that  instru- 
ment submitted  by  Congress  shall  become  effective  when 
three  fourths  of  the  States,  either  by  their  Legislatures  or  by 
a  special  vote  of  the  people,  shall  ratify  the  action  of  Con- 
gress. To  secure  federal  Prohibition  by  this  route,  therefore, 
would  require  ratification  by  thirty-six  States.  The  fourteen 
States  which  have  already  adopted  Prohibition  would  promptly 
join  in  the  ratification  of  such  a  constitutional  amendment. 
The  action  by  twenty-two  other  States  would  be  necessary 
before  the  amendment  could  go  into  effect.  These  States 
would  need  to  be  lined  up  one  at  a  time — the  temperance 
forces  of  the  nation  concentrating  on  one  State  after  another 
until  the  necessary  number  is  secured. 

The  people  are  ready 

Those  who  have  followed  the  progress  of  the  temperance 
movement  during  the  past  decade  realize  that  the  people  are 
ready  to  concentrate  on  such  a  fight  for  national  Prohibition. 
Already  more  than  forty-six  million  people  are  living  in 
Prohibition  territory,  and  more  than  seventy  per  cent  of  the 
entire  area  of  the  United  States  is  under  no-license.  Nor 
do  these  figures  represent  the  real  strength  of  the  anti-liquor 
forces  in  the  nation.  For  instance,  in  the  fourteen  Prohibition 
States  the  majority  in  favor  of  Prohibition  is  overwhelming, 
while  in  a  score  of  other  States  the  liquor  traffic  is  holding 
on  by  reason  of  a  bare  majority;  in  many  cases  accounted 
for  by  the  failure  of  a  large  number  of  temperance  voters 
to  go  to  the  polls. 

In  addition  to  the  fourteen  States  now  under  Prohibition, 
there  are  seventeen  other  States  in  which  from  fifty  to  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  population  is  living  under  no-license.  There 
are  thirteen  other  States  in  which  between  twenty-five  and 
fifty  per  cent  of  the  population  is  living  under  no-license,  and 


AMEND   THE    CONSTITUTION  129 

the  remaining  States  have  large  sections  of  territory  and  a 
large  proportion  of  the  population  which  by  one  means  or 
another  have  excluded  the  traffic.  In  fact,  it  is  conservatively 
estimated  that  sixty  per  cent  of  the  voters  of  the  United  States 
are  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

What  is  required 

The  fight  to  secure  an  amendment  to  the  constitution, 
however,  will  not  be  an  easy  one.  It  means  that  the  tem- 
perance forces  will  face  the  same  sort  of  conflict  in  every 
congressional  district  as  they  have  been  compelled  to  face  in 
every  State  legislative  district  in  the  effort  to  secure  State 
legislation.  Each  man  who  voted  for  the  Kenyon-Webb  bill 
in  Congress  has  already  been  spotted ;  the  liquor  interests  of 
the  country  will  not  spare  efforts  or  money  to  secure  his 
defeat.  This  issue  will  present  itself  in  practically  every 
election  in  every  congressional  district  of  the  United  States 
from  this  time  forward,  and  it  will  be  necessary  for  the 
temperance  and  moral  forces  to  be  so  organized  in  every 
congressional  district  as  to  insure  a  majority  in  Congress  in 
favor  of  submitting  this  whole  proposition  to  the  people  in 
the  several  States. 

Liquor  no  longer  a  necessity 

Scientific  investigations  and  experiments  along  various  lines 
have  finally  established  the  fact  that  intoxicating  liquors  are 
no  longer  necessary  for  any  purpose.  For  long  years,  the 
mistaken  idea  that  intoxicating  liquors  were  essential  for 
medicinal,  pharmaceutical,  sacramental,  or  scientific  purposes 
fooled  the  public.  The  great  hospitals  of  the  world,  how- 
ever, during  the  past  twenty  years,  have  greatly  reduced  the 
use  of  intoxicants.  Many  of  the  greatest  medical  scientists 
of  this  and  other  countries  have  discontinued  altogether  the 
use  of  intoxicating  liquors.  Denatured  alcohol  is  largely 
taking  the  place  of  spirits  in  the  arts.  Hundreds  of  drug 
stores  have  ceased  to  sell  the  stuff,  the  great  chain  of  Liggett 


i3o  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

drug  stores  throughout  the  United  States  just  a  few  weeks 
ago  having  published  a  large  advertisement  in  the  leading 
papers  of  twenty-eight  cities  of  the  United  States  announcing 
that  from  that  time  forward  intoxicating  liquors  would  not 
be  sold  in  any  Liggett  drug  store. 

The  operations  of  a  law  passed  in  Kansas  about  four  years 
ago  prohibiting  the  sale  of  liquors  for  any  purpose  except 
for  sacramental  use,  which  was  ridiculed  at  the  time  by  many 
fair-minded  men,  has  fully  demonstrated  that  the  sale  of  in- 
toxicating liquors  for  even  medicinal  or  mechanical  purposes 
is  not  necessary.  In  short,  it  has  been  demonstrated  beyond 
the  question  of  a  doubt  that  intoxicating  liquors  do  not  in 
any  sense  come  under  the  head  of  necessities,  and  thus  the 
last  faint  argument  for  their  continued  manufacture  and  sale 
has  failed. 

Revenue  not  now  essential 

Furthermore,  the  income  tax  amendment  to  the  United 
States  constitution,  which  has  just  been  ratified  by  two  thirds 
of  the  States,  will,  at  a  conservative  estimate,  increase  the 
revenues  of  the  United  States  government  from  $100,000,000 
to  $150,000,000  a  year. 

If  there  ever  was  an  excuse  for  drawing  from  the  liquor 
traffic  of  this  country  the  money  necessary  to  run  the  United 
States  Government,  that  excuse  will  no  longer  hold,  for  the 
income  tax  alone  will  provide  almost  as  much  money  as  the 
government  receives  each  year  in  revenue  from  the  liquor 
traffic. 

From  the  time  the  federal  revenue  tax  was  put  on  the 
liquor  traffic,  fifty  years  ago,  one  of  the  favorite  pro-liquor 
arguments  has  been  to  the  effect  that  the  government  cannot 
run  without  the  revenue  derived  from  this  traffic.  If  the 
United  States  was  ever  in  this  condition  where  it  was  abso- 
lutely dependent  upon  such  revenue,  certainly  that  time  has 
long  since  passed.  The  federal  reports  for  the  last  fiscal 
year  show  the  ordinary  government  receipts  to  have  been 


AMEND   THE   CONSTITUTION  131 


$691,140,455,  while  the  ordinary  government  disbursements 
were  only  $654,804,625,  showing  the  income  of  the  United 
States  government  to  have  been  almost  $40,000,000  in  excess 
of  the  government  expenses  for  the  year. 

Defenders  of  the  Constitution 

The  friends  of  temperance  reform  pressing  for  needed  anti- 
liquor  legislation  both  in  State  and  national  legislative  bodies, 
have  constantly  been  met  with  the  cry  that  all  such  legislation 
"is  unconstitutional."  It  is  perhaps  safe  to  say  that  not  a 
single  anti-liquor  law  from  a  search  and  seizure  or  other 
enforcement  measure  to  a  Prohibition  statute,  has  ever  been 
presented  to  a  legislative  body  in  this  country  that  it  has  not 
been  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  members  of  the  legal 
profession  who  for  one  reason  or  another  have  seen  fit  to 
ally  themselves  with  the  liquor  crowd.  Yet,  of  all  these 
hundreds  of  laws  that  have  been  enacted,  to  find  one  that 
has  been  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  is  like  looking  for  a  needle  in  a  haystack. 
United  States  Senator  Sutherland  and  others,  who  led  the 
fight  against  the  Kenyon-Webb  bill  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  were  loud  in  their  condemnation  of  present  liquor 
abuses.  They  were  perfectly  willing,  according  to  their 
declarations,  to  do  anything  which  would  be  constitutional 
to  relieve  the  present  situation.  Senator  Sutherland  declared 
that  if  by  his  single  pronouncement  all  intoxicating  liquors 
could  be  put  in  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  it  would  promptly 
be  done;  the  only  thing  in  the  way  was  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States. 

Take  them  at  their  word 

Let  us  take  these  gentlemen  at  their  word.  Let  us  have 
a  show-down  on  this  proposition.  According  to  declarations 
of  these  leading  advocates  of  the  liquor  interests,  they  are 
perfectly  willing  to  join  hands  to  amend  the  constitution. 
Let  us  give  them  the  opportunity. 


132  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

Of  course,  they  will  find  some  other  weapon  with  which  to 
fight.  They  will  at  once  discover  some  other  great  calamity 
that  would  come  upon  the  people  if  the  Prohibition  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  were  to  be  submitted  to  the  States. 
This  is  to  be  expected.  The  time  has  come,  however,  when 
the  Christian,  moral,  law-abiding,  liberty-loving  citizenship 
should  stand  up  against  all  odds,  in  spite  of  vilification, 
falsification,  persecution,  and  abuse,  until  there  shall  be 
indelibly  written  in  enforceable  form  upon  the  statute  books 
of  the  federal  government,  the  complete  Prohibition  of  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicants. 

Make  your  case  ready  for  court 

There  are  many  ways  of  finding  out  if  the  plans  being 
adopted  are  proving  or  likely  to  prove  successful.  One  way 
of  testing  their  strength  and  probable  outcome  is  to  note 
their  effect  upon  the  leaders  of  the  opposition.  A  careful 
study  of  the  following,  a  part  of  a  leading  editorial  in  the 
National  Liquor  Dealers'  Journal,  September  10,  1913,  should 
inspire  every  enemy  of  the  liquor  business  with  a  spirit  of 
confidence  concerning  the  wisdom  of  the  proposition  to 
amend  the  Federal  Constitution  as  indicated  above. 

"Ultimately  all  questions  must  be  settled  by  moral 
standards;  only  in  this  way  can  mankind  be  saved 
from  self-effacement.  The  liquor  traffic  cannot  save 
itself  by  declaring  that  government  is  incapable  of 
coping  with  the  problem  it  presents ;  when  the  people 
decide  that  it  must  go,  it  will  be  banished.  We  are 
not  discussing  the  benefit  or  justice  of  Prohibition; 
but  its  possibility,  and  its  probability  in  present  cir- 
cumstances. To  us  there  is  'The  handwriting  on  the 
wall,'  and  its  interpretation  spells  doom.  For  this 
the  liquor  business  is  to  blame.  It  seems  incapable  of 
learning  any  lesson  of  advancement,  or  any  motive 
but  profit.  To  perpetuate  itself,  it  has  formed  alli- 
ances with  the  slums  that  repel  all  conscientious  and 
patriotic  citizens.  It  deliberately  aids  the  most  corrupt 
political  powers,  and  backs  with  all  of  its  resources 
the  most  unworthy  men,  the  most  corrupt  and  recreant 


AMEND    THE    CONSTITUTION  133 

officials.  It  does  not  aid  the  purification  of  municipal, 
State,  or  national  administration.  Why?  Because  it 
has  to  ask  immunity  for  its  own  lawlessness.  That 
this  condition  is  inherently  and  inevitably  necessary 
we  do  not  believe,  but  it  has  come  to  be  a  fact,  and 
the  public  which  is  to  pass  on  the  matter  in  its  final 
analysis  believe  anything  bad  that  anybody  can  tell  it 
of  the  liquor  business.  Why?  Let  the  leaders  of  the 
trade  answer.  Other  lines  of  business  may  be  as 
bad,  or  even  worse,  but  it  is  not  so  plainly  in  evidence. 
The  case  of  the  liquor  traffic  is  called  for  adjudica- 
tion by  the  American  people  and  must  be  ready  for 
trial.  Other  cases  may  be  called  later,  but  the  one 
before  the  court  cannot  be  postponed.  But,  as  in  the 
past,  the  men  most  concerned  are  playing  for  post- 
ponement, not  for  acquittal.  Is  it  because  they  fear 
the  weakness  of  their  defense  that  they  fear  to  go 
on  trial  ?  Looking  the  facts  in  the  face  is  best.  There 
are  billions  of  property  involved,  and  an  industry  of 
great  employing  and  taxpaying  ability;  but  when  the 
people  decide  that  the  truth  is  being  told  about  the 
alcoholic  liquor  trade,  the  money  value  will  not  count, 
for  conscience  aroused  puts  the  value  of  a  man  above 
all  other  things." 

SOME  PERTINENT  QUESTIONS 

What  has  been  the  contribution  of  the  Prohibition  Party 
toward  the  ultimate  victory  of  national  Prohibition? 

What  has  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  ac- 
complished toward  that  end? 

In  what  ways  has  the  work  of  the  Anti- Saloon  League 
been  effective? 

Is  a  program  to  amend  the  Federal  Constitution  one  upon 
which  all  of  the  temperance  forces  can  unite  and  for  which 
they  can  work  in  harmonious  cooperation? 

Will  our  State  ratify  such  a  proposed  amendment? 

What  can  be  done  in  this  community  to  make  such  rati- 
fication more  probable? 

How  could  our  Federal  Government  be  supported  if  all  of 
the  internal  revenue  coming  from  the  tax  on  alcoholic  liquors 
were  abolished? 


134  THE    LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

What  influences  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  our  senators 
and  congressmen  to  help  them  to  vote  as  they  should? 

What  will  be  the  probable  attitudes  of  the  States  of  the 
Union  toward  the  ratification  of  the  proposed  amendment? 

How  can  the  churches  do  more  than  they  are  now  doing 
to  create  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  present  nation-wide 
campaign  ? 

-Just  what  is  the  present  value  of  such  public  opinion? 

What  per  cent  of  the  area  and  population  of  the  United 
States  can  now  be  counted  upon  to  ratify  the  proposed 
amendment  ? 

Can  they  be  united  and  organized  so  as  to  achieve  success? 

What  reasons  have  we  to  believe  that  a  saloonless  nation 
is  not  an  impossibility? 

CLASS  OISCUSSION 

It  would  be  unwise  to  let  any  ardent  admirer  of  any  one 
of  the  parties  or  organizations  referred  to  in  the  opening 
paragraph  of  the  lesson  monopolize  too  much  time.  The 
discussion  should  result  in  the  intensification,  not  of  the 
partisan  spirit,  but  rather  the  spirit  of  good  will  and  co- 
operative endeavor.  It  should  emphasize  the  common  pur- 
pose. Guard  against  everything  that  interferes  with  such  a 
result. 

Some  time  should  be  given  to  the  discussion  of  the  history 
of  the  temperance  movement;  but  only  such  aspects  of  that 
history  as  are  pertinent  in  the  light  of  the  pending  crisis 
should  be  presented. 

WHAT  OUR  CLASS  CAN  Do 

It  was  suggested,  in  connection  with  the  first  lesson,  that 
all  facts  brought  out  in  the  various  investigations  of  local 
or  State  conditions  should  be  carefully  preserved.  It  is 
highly  important  that  at  the  close  of  the  course,  such  reli- 
able information  as  has  been  secured  be  forwarded  to  Dr. 


AMEND   THE    CONSTITUTION  135 

Henry  H.  Meyer,  220  West  Fourth  Street,  Cincinnati,  O. 
On  the  basis  of  the  information  thus  secured,  new  facts,  of 
national  significance,  can  be  used  to  further  the  general 
movement. 

Select  out  of  the  numerous  plans  of  activity  suggested  in 
connection  with  former  lessons  those  that  can  be  carried  on 
permanently  by  the  class.  Plan  to  do  something  throughout 
the  year. 


SOME  OF  THE  BEST  BOOKS  ON  THE  LIQUOR 
PROBLEM 

(Prepared  by  Mr.  Deets  Pickett) 

The  Legalized  Outlaw,  by  Judge  Samuel  R.  Artman  (1908),$!. 
Alcohol  and  the  Human   Body,  by   Sir  Victor   Horsley  and 

Dr.  Mary  D.  Sturge  (1908),  376  pages.    $1.50. 
Alcohol :  How  it  Affects  the  Individual,  the  Community,  and 

the  Race,  by  Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams  (1909).    50  cents. 
Social  Welfare  and  the  Liquor  Problem,  by  Harry  S.  Warner 

(1909),  274  pages.    $i. 
A   Century   of   Drink  Reform,   by   Dr.    August   F.    Fehlandt 

(1904),  410  pages.    $i. 
History  of  the  Prohibition  Party,  by  Wm.   P.   F.   Ferguson, 

Editor  National  Prohibitionist   (1910).     $1.50. 
Profit  and  Loss  in  Man,  by  Professor  A.  A.  Hopkins  (1908). 

$1.20. 

Wealth  and  Waste,  by  Professor  A.  A.  Hopkins  (1895).    $i. 
American    Prohibition    Year   Book    (1910-11-12).      Paper,   25 

cents;  cloth,  50  cents. 
The  Drink  Problem  in  its  Medico-Sociological  Aspects,  by  Dr. 

T.  N.  Kelynack  (1907),  8vo,  300  pages.    $2.50. 
The  Passing  of  the  Saloon,  Hammell  (1908),  436  pages.    $2. 
The  People  vs.  The  Liquor  Traffic,  by  John  B.  Finch.     Paper, 

25  cents. 
The   Challenge   of   the   City,   by  Josiah   Strong    (1907),   332 

pages.     50  cents. 
Temperance  Progress  in  the  I9th  Century,  by  Woolley  and 

Johnson.     $2. 
The  Christian  Citizen,  by  John  G.  Woolley  (1900)  ;  vol.  i,  254 

pages;  vol.  2,  272  pages.     75  cents  each;  2  vols.,  $i. 
The    Saloon-Keeper's    Ledger,   by    Dr.    Louis    Albert    Banks 

(1895).    75  cents. 

136 


BOOKS    ON    THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM  137 

A  Sower,  by  John  G.  Woolley   (1898),  76  pages.     50  cents. 
Civilization  by  Faith,  by  John  G.  Woolley   (1899),  136  pages. 

50  cents. 
Substitutes  for  the  Saloon ;  Committee  of  Fifty,  by  Raymond 

G.  Calkins   (1901),  397  pages.     $1.30. 
Economic    Aspects    of    the    Liquor    Problem ;    Committee    of 

Fifty,  by  Koren   (1890),  327  pages.     $1.50. 
The   Psychology  of   Alcoholism,   by  Geo.   B.    Cutten    (1907). 

$1.50. 
Regulation  of  the  Liquor  Traffic,  by  various  authors ;  Annals 

of   American   Academy   of   Political   and   Social    Science, 

vol.    32,    No.    2,    Nov.,    1908,     150    pages.      Paper,    $i ; 

cloth,  $1.50. 
The  New  Encyclopedia  of  Social  Reform,  edited  by  W.  D.  P. 

Bliss  (1908),  1321  pages.     $7.50. 

The  Economics  of  Prohibition,  by  Dr.  James  C.  Fernald.   $1.50. 
The  World  Book  of  Temperance,  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilbur  F. 

Crafts  (1909),  288  pages.    75  cents. 
Cyclopedia   of   Temperance    and    Prohibition;    for    facts    and 

history   of   all   organizations.     Available   at   many   public 

libraries. 

PUBLIC  DOCUMENTS  OF  SPECIAL  VALUE: 
Some  Scientific  Conclusions  Concerning  the  Liquor  Problem 

and  its  Practical  Relation  to  Life;  Senate  Document  No. 

48,  6ist  Congress,  ist  Session  (1909),  179  pages. 
Indiana  Circuit  Court  Decision  (Artman)   Relating  to  Liquor 

License ;    Senate   Doc.    284,    59th    Congress,   2d    Session ; 

Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue   (published 

annually  in  January). 
Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United  States   (published  annually 

in  March). 
''Relation  of  the  Liquor  Traffic  to  Pauperism,  Insanity,  and 

Crime,"  Mass.  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  (1896). 
''Economic    Aspects   of    the    Liquor    Problem,"    I2th    Annual 

Report  of  the  United  States  Commission  of  Labor  (1898). 


INDEX  . 


ABSTINENCE 

and  longevity,  19. 

the  only  safe  position,  1 10. 
ACCIDENT  due  to  drink,  68,  69. 
ADVERTISEMENTS  of  liquor,  50. 
ALCOHOL 

as  a  household  remedy,  18. 

as   a   source   of   poverty, 

95ff- 

legitimate  uses  of,  38. 

mental  effects  of,  69. 

moral  effects  of,  45,  46,  59. 

origin  and  nature  of,  12, 14. 

physical  effects  of,  20. 

the  ally  of  disease,  18. 
ALLIES  OF  THE  LIQUOR  TRAF- 
FIC, 6,  7. 

ANIMAL  LIFE,  effects  of  alcohol 
upon,  27. 

BLOOD  affected  by  alcohol,  15. 
BREWERS 

as  owners  of  saloons,  76. 
The  U.  S.  Brewers'  Asso- 
ciation, 7. 
CHILD 

development  of,  retarded, 

60. 
in  the  public  school,   54, 

55,  56. 
parental  responsibility  for, 

86. 
rights  of,  86. 


CONSTITUTION,  Federal 

amendment  of,  13  iff. 
CONSUMER  OF  liquor,  70. 

CONSUMPTION  of  liquor  in  the 
U.  S.,  4. 

COST  OF  DRINK 
direct,  4. 
indirect,  5,  101. 

CRIME,  29. 

definition  of,  33,  34. 

juvenile,  99. 

promoted    by    the    liquor 

interests,  34,  38. 
traced  to  the  saloon,  37, 

39- 
CUSTOM  of  drinking,  13. 

DANCE  HALL,  44. 

DEATH  due  to  alcohol,  19,  20. 

DEGENERACY,  24. 

DISEASE 

liability  to,  18. 

of  heart  and  blood  ves- 
sels, 17. 

tuberculosis  due  to  alco- 
hol, 59,  101. 
DRINK,  17. 
DRINK  HABIT 

effect  of,  17. 

why  begun,  113. 
DRUNKARD  as  a  * 'consumer,  "70. 


138 


INDEX 


139 


DRUNKENNESS,  description  of, 
16. 

EDUCATION 

conducted   by    the   liquor 

interests,  8. 

liquor  traffic  and  the  pub- 
lic school,  53ff. 
need  of  temperance  edu- 
cation, 123. 
value  of,  53. 
EFFICIENCY 

mental,  reduced  by  drink, 

69. 
physical,   reduced  by 

drink,  69,  70. 

ENDURANCE  decreased  by  alco- 
hol, 65. 

EPILEPSY  caused  by  drink,  24. 
ETHICS  of  the  saloon  keeper, 
57- 

FAMILY 

health  of,  injured,  89. 
ties  broken,  89,  90. 

FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS,  120. 
GERM  of  life,  28. 

HABIT 

effect  of  drink,  17. 

how  formed,  112. 
HEALTH  injured,  89. 
HEART  affected  by  alcohol,  17. 
HEREDITY,    effect    of    alcohol 
upon,  28,  29. 


HOME 

and  the  saloon,  87. 
broken  up  by  drink,  91. 
happiness    of,    destroyed, 

90. 

importance  of,  85. 
income  of,  decreased,  87. 
of  drunkard,  26. 

HUMAN  LIFE,  value  of,  24. 

IDIOCY  the  result   of  alcohol, 
24. 

LABOR 

affected    by    the    use    of 

alcohol,  646*.,  70. 
importance  of,  64. 

LEGISLATION 
federal,  127. 

liquor  legislation,  "uncon- 
stitutional," 131. 
state,  126. 

LICENSE 

development    of   idea    of, 

117. 
fees   inadequate   to   meet 

cost  to  community,  119. 
municipal,  7. 
policy,  36,  37. 

LINCOLN,  attitude  of,  116. 

MAGNITUDE  of  liquor  business, 

3,  9,  67. 
MANUFACTURE  of  liquor,  3. 

MORAL  FORCES  need  to  be  or- 
ganized, 79,  80. 


140 


INDEX 


MORAL   LOSSES   due  tc   alco- 
hol, 1 20. 

NARCOTIC  effects  of  alcohol,  14. 
NEWSPAPER 

as  ally  of  the  saloon,  7. 

corrupted  by  the  liquor 
interests,  75. 

PARENT 

injury  of,  by  alcohol,  25, 

26,  60. 

responsibility  of,  86. 
PAUPERISM,  97,  100. 
PHYSICAL  EFFECTS  OF  ALCO- 
HOL 

general,  20,  67. 
upon  the  blood,  15,  17. 
upon  the  heart,  17. 
upon  the  muscles,  18. 
POLITICS   and   the   liquor   in- 
terests,   8,   74,    77,    78, 

121. 

POVERTY 

caused  by  drink,  98,  99. 

definition  of,  95,  96. 

not      cured      by      higher 

wages,  97. 
PROHIBITION 

benefits  resulting  from,  30, 

60. 

defined,  36. 
Federal,  127,  128. 


REVENUE  from  liquor  licenses 
no  longer  needed,  130. 

SALOON 

and  commercialized  pros- 
titution, 46 

effect  upon  society,  24. 

number  of,  2. 

owned  by  brewers,  76. 

political  influence  of,  80. 

relation   of  to   the   social 
evil,  48,  49. 

social  phase  of,  io5ff,  122. 
.SALOON  KEEPER,  greed  of,  119. 
SICKNESS  caused  by  drink,  68. 
SOCIAL  EVIL,  48,  49. 
SOCIAL  GLASS,  106,  107. 
SOCIETY,    injury    of,    due    to 

alcohol,  75. 
SUBSTITUTES    for    the    saloon, 

109,  in. 
SUICIDE,  20. 

STATE  LEGISLATION,  126. 
STIMULANT,  alcohol  as  a,  13. 
TUBERCULOSIS,  59,  101. 

VICE,    relation    of    the    liquor 

business  to,  3,  81. 
VIRTUE,  first  step  from,  44. 

WAGES,  3,  4,  5,  88,  97. 
WEBB  LAW,  40. 


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